Following the war, with the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, substantive due process interpretations were urged on the Supreme Court with regard to state legislation. Thus, Chief Justice Taney was not innovating when, in the Dred Scott case, he pronounced, without elaboration, that one of the reasons that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional was that an act of Congress that deprived “a citizen of the United States of his liberty or property, merely because he came himself or brought his property into a particular territory of the United States, and who had committed no offence against the laws, could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of law.” 12 Footnote Scott v. The pathbreaking decision of the era was Wynhamer v. 11 Footnote The full account is related in E. The “vested rights” jurists thus found in the “law of the land” and the “due process” clauses of the state constitutions a restriction upon the substantive content of legislation, which prohibited, regardless of the matter of procedure, a certain kind or degree of exertion of legislative power altogether. Opposing the “vested rights” theory of protection of property were jurists who argued first, that the written constitution was the supreme law of the State and that judicial review could look only to that document in scrutinizing legislation and not to the “unwritten law” of “natural rights,” and second, that the “police power” of government enabled legislatures to regulate the use and holding of property in the public interest, subject only to the specific prohibitions of the written constitution. State courts were the arenas in which this struggle was carried out prior to the Civil War. 10 Footnote Compare the remarks of Justices Chase and Iredell in Calder v. Justices Rutledge and Murphy in the latter case argued that the Due Process Clause applies to every human being, including enemy belligerents.Įarly in our judicial history, a number of jurists attempted to formulate a theory of natural rights-natural justice, which would limit the power of government, especially with regard to the property rights of persons. Nor does it reach enemy alien belligerents tried by military tribunals outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. but it does not apply of its own force to unincorporated territories. and in territories which are part of the United States, 7 Footnote Lovato v. It is effective in the District of Columbia 6 Footnote Wight v. and presumptively citizens seeking readmission to the United States, 4 Footnote United States v. All persons within the territory of the United States are entitled to its protection, including corporations, 2 Footnote Sinking Fund Cases, 99 U.S. See also Chief Justice Shaw’s opinion in Jones v. Webster had made the argument as counsel in Trustees of Dartmouth College v. The article is a restraint on the legislative as well as on the executive and judicial powers of the government, and cannot be so construed as to leave Congress free to make any process ‘due process of law’ by its mere will.” 1 Footnote Murray's Lessee v. “It is manifest that it was not left to the legislative power to enact any process which might be devised. But that is not the interpretation which has been placed on the term. Standing by itself, the phrase “due process” would seem to refer solely and simply to procedure, to process in court, and therefore to be so limited that “due process of law” would be what the legislative branch enacted it to be. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
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