Due process
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Due process constitutional
Fair procedures before the government takes your life, liberty, or property — notice, a hearing, and a fair decision-maker.
Technical: The guarantee (5th and 14th Amendments) that government not deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; encompasses procedural due process and substantive due process.
Founding-era note: The phrase descends from Magna Carta's 'law of the land' (per legem terrae); early American usage tied it to established, regular legal procedure.
A dictionary entry is reference: it describes how a term is used. It is not itself binding law. Why that matters →
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