Due Process of Law
The Fifth Amendment says government cannot take your life, freedom, or property “without due process of law.” Due process means: before locking you up or taking your stuff, government must charge you with breaking a specific law, give you a hearing before a neutral judge, let you see the evidence, and prove its case.
In 2025, the administration deports people without hearings, detains immigrants indefinitely without charges, threatens to strip citizenship through denaturalization proceedings, and designates people as “enemy combatants” to bypass trials entirely.
Due process protects everyone – not just citizens. When government can bypass it for one group, it can bypass it for anyone.
What It Says
The Fifth Amendment contains five protections. The most critical right now: Due process.
“No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
Note: “No person” – not “no citizen.” This was deliberate. Due process protects everyone subject to U.S. government power.
Where It Came From
English Star Chamber courts used torture and coercion to force confessions. They made defendants swear oaths to answer all questions before knowing the charges. Refuse the oath? Prison. Take it? Forced to confess.
John Lilburne, imprisoned in the 1640s for refusing to testify against himself, established the principle: no man should be required to accuse himself.
The Founders lived under British authorities who imprisoned colonists without charges and seized property without compensation. They wrote “due process” to prevent that from happening in America.
Current Attacks on Due Process
Deportations without hearings:
The administration expanded “expedited removal” – deporting immigrants without immigration court hearings. People are removed before lawyers can file habeas corpus petitions. Due process requires a hearing. Expedited removal skips it.
Denaturalization:
The administration reviews naturalized citizens for potential “fraud” in citizenship applications – even decades-old applications. The goal: strip citizenship retroactively. This creates two classes of citizens: natural-born (permanent) and naturalized (conditional, revocable).
Once citizenship is stripped, the person can be deported without due process protections citizens receive.
Indefinite detention:
Immigrants held in detention facilities indefinitely without being charged or getting hearings. Due process requires: if you lock someone up, charge them with something and give them a hearing.
“Enemy combatant” designations:
The administration threatened to designate gang members and protesters as “enemy combatants” – allowing indefinite military detention without trial. This bypasses the entire criminal justice system.
Precedent: Jose Padilla, U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago (2002), held for years without charges. The Supreme Court eventually forced the government to charge him or release him. The administration is threatening to revive this.
Threats to suspend habeas corpus:
Stephen Miller said the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus – the right to challenge detention in court. Without it, government can lock you up with no recourse.
The “I Plead the Fifth” Irony
August 2022: Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 440 times in a New York civil fraud deposition. He refused to answer questions about his business practices and financial statements.
Years earlier, Trump said: “The mob takes the Fifth Amendment. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth?”
The Fifth Amendment protected Trump. Now his administration eliminates due process protections for others.
Why This Matters
Attacks on due process start with immigrants because it’s politically easier. Most Americans don’t think about due process for people who entered illegally. So the administration eliminates it for that group first.
But due process doesn’t work that way. Either it applies to everyone or it applies to no one.
Once government establishes it can deport people without hearings, it can detain anyone without hearings. Once it can strip citizenship from naturalized citizens, it can strip rights from any citizens. Once it can designate gang members as enemy combatants, it can designate protesters, opponents, anyone.
The Founders understood this. That’s why they wrote “no person” – not “no citizen.” Due process protects everyone because the alternative is government with unchecked power to decide who gets rights and who doesn’t.
Due process is inconvenient. It’s slow. It lets some guilty people go free on technicalities. But the alternative is government power without limits.
What We Actually Have
Government deports people without hearings, detains immigrants indefinitely without charges, threatens to strip citizenship without fair procedures, and designates people as enemy combatants to bypass trials.
The Fifth Amendment says “no person” shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process. Not “no citizen.” No person.
Due process applies to everyone or it applies to no one. When government can bypass it for immigrants, it can bypass it for citizens.
The man who invoked the Fifth Amendment 440 times is now eliminating due process protections for everyone else.
The constitutional protection only works if we enforce it. We’re not enforcing it.
(See also: Habeas Corpus; Separation of Powers; War Powers)
Leave a Reply