Every American has the right to due process under the United States Constitution and more specifically the Bill of Rights within the Constitution. The Right to due process, in fact, is in the Constitution twice. Due process is in the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights and it is in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment guarantees your right to due process on the federal level and the 14th Amendment guarantees your right to due process on the state level. What does that all mean, though? I mean it must be an important right to be in the Constitution two times.
To explain it in a nutshell, due process is the requirement that the state (the government) must respect all legal rights that are owed to a person. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual person from it. When a government harms a person without following the exact course of the law, this constitutes a due process violation, which offends the rule of law.
Due process then guarantees against any uncertainty on the part of the government whether that is committed by the legislature, the executive, or the judiciary. If the law itself unreasonably deprives a person of their life, liberty, or property, then that person is denied the protection of due process.
Due process also is the guarantee that ensures a fair and speedy trial and the right to face your accuser in court. The due process clause is so important because it protects the 1st Amendment rights of people and prevents those rights from being taken away by any government without due process.
The right to due process means that you can’t be imprisoned falsely, and you have the right to NOT self-incriminate you. When someone says, I will take the “Fifth” they are saying they have the right to due process. Another very important portion of the right to due process is that people in the United States are innocent, until proven guilty in a court of law.
Each person in the United States enjoys these natural rights. The Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, states that no government entity to include the Legislative, Executive, or Judicial Branch has the right to supersede the right of due process.
A good example of an infringement, as I see it, is the President of the United States. The right to due process protects every person in the United States and that includes the President. It also means that Congress is required to follow due process as well as any other part of the government.
I have heard members of Congress state, “It is obvious the President is guilty” of one crime or another. The House of Representatives’ job in the role of Impeachment is to gather evidence and, if there is enough, impeach the President. A trial would then occur in the Senate . So you see, the President is innocent until proven guilty in a trial of his peers. He also should have the right to face his accusers as is a right given by the 5th Amendment.
I recently wrote a newsletter that talks about China’s move towards a social justice policy and how some in the United States have voluntarily moved in that direction, a direct erosion of the First Amendment. The erosion of our Constitution, and specifically the Bill of Rights, are concerning to me and should be concerning to every American.
The good news is that I believe our great country will survive this and be stronger for it. But in order to do that, we have some work to do. First, we must pray for our country and its leaders. Second, we need to educate ourselves and others about the rights that we have been granted by God, a higher power than our government. Ronald Reagan said years ago that we are never more than one generation away from losing our freedoms and we should jealously guard our freedoms and teach our children about these freedoms we hold dear.
