1. Due Process The Impact of the 5 th and 14 th Amendments

2. What is due process? No formal definition of due process is given in the Constitution It is protection against random deprivation of life, liberty, or property

3. The Fifth Amendment The FEDERAL gov’t may not deprive any person of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law” In other words, you can’t be tried for a crime today, convicted of it tomorrow, and imprisoned the next day…

4. The Fourteenth Amendment This amendment places the same restrictions on the STATE and LOCAL gov’t that the fifth amendment places on the federal gov’t

5. Types of Due Process Procedural Due Process: The gov’t must use fair methods when it acts Substantive Due Process: The gov’t must use fair laws when it acts

6. Discussion Questions What would John Locke have thought of due process? Who would have supported the idea of due process more – Federalists or Anti- Federalists – and why? Why was the expansion of due process of laws to the states important to the Civil Rights movement?

7. Equal Protection No individual or group should receive special treatment or be deprived of certain rights under the law State legislatures CAN pass laws that treat people differently if there is a reason (i.e. driving age, drinking age, etc.)

8. Important Court Cases Gitlow v. New York (1925): expanded 1 st amendment rights of speech and press Powell v. Alabama (1932): Right to counsel in death penalty cases Palko v. Connecticut (1937): Double jeopardy isn’t a “fundamental right”

9. More on the 14th The authors of the 14 th amendment didn’t intend to protect equality of condition The intent of the 14 th amendment was to have people treated equally under the law, NOT to make everyone’s circumstances and living conditions fair or equal

10. Discussion Questions Are there ever circumstances that justify treating people unequally? If so, what are they? How would affirmative action be justified under the 14 th Amendment? Why is the 14 th Amendment potentially a more important source of rights than the Bill of Rights?