Magruder's American Government: 8. Protecting Civil Liberties, Sections 5–7

Fundamentally, however, the Constitution’s guarantee of due process means this: In whatever it does, government must act fairly and in accord with established rules.

In short, procedural due process has to do with the how (the procedures, the methods) of governmental action.

Thus, the Court added the idea of substantive due process to the original notion of procedural due process.

Further, had the officer taken the time necessary to secure a search warrant—a court order authorizing a search—whatever evidence was present could have disappeared from the suspect’s system.

Another aspect of due process relates to the right of eminent domain, that is, the power of the government to take private property for public use.

The 13th Amendment was added to the Constitution in 1865, ending over 200 years of legalized slavery in America. Section 1 of the amendment declares: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

The 13th Amendment does not forbid all forms of involuntary servitude, however. Thus, in 1918, the Supreme Court drew a distinction between “involuntary servitude” and “duty” in upholding the constitutionality of the selective service system (the draft).

In effect, the Court held that racial discrimination (prejudice, unfairness) against African Americans by private individuals was allowed.

The 4th Amendment also grew out of colonial practice. It was designed to prevent the use of writs of assistance—blanket search warrants with which British customs officials had invaded private homes to search for smuggled goods.

The writ of habeas corpus, sometimes called the writ of liberty, is intended to prevent unjust arrests and imprisonments. The phrase habeas corpus comes from the Latin, meaning "you should have the body," and those are the opening words of the writ.

A bill of attainder is a legislative act that provides for the punishment of a person without a court trial.

The Constitution, in Article I, Sections 9 and 10, prohibits Congress and the States from enacting ex post facto laws. An ex post facto law is a law applied to an act committed before the passage of that law. The phrase ex post facto is from the Latin, meaning “after the fact.”

The grand jury is the formal device by which a person can be accused of a serious crime—that is, any offense for which the punishment is death or imprisonment. In federal cases, the grand jury is a body of from 16 to 23 persons drawn from the area of the district court that it serves.

An indictment is a formal complaint that the prosecutor lays before a grand jury. It charges the accused with one or more crimes.

A presentment is a formal accusation brought by the grand jury on its own motion, rather than that of the prosecutor.

The 5th Amendment says in part that no person can be “twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” Today, this prohibition against double jeopardy means that once a person has been tried for a crime, he or she cannot be tried again for that same crime.

The sum of money that the accused may be required to post (deposit with the court) as a guarantee that he or she will appear in court at the proper time is called bail.

In 1984, Congress provided for the preventive detention of some people accused of federal crimes. A federal judge can order that the accused be held, without bail, when there is good reason to believe that he or she will commit another serious crime before trial.

Laws providing for capital punishment—the death penalty—date back to at least the 18th century B.C. and the Code of Hammurabi, which set death as the penalty for more than 25 different offenses.

Treason, says Article III, Section 3, can consist of only two things: either (1) levying war against the United States or (2) “adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”