DUE PROCESS OF LAW
A fundamental, constitutional guarantee that all
legal proceedings will be fair and that one will be
given notice of the proceedings and an opportunity
to be heard before the government acts to take
away one’s life, liberty, or property. Also, a consti-
tutional guarantee that a law shall not be unrea-
sonable, ARBITRARY, or capricious.
The constitutional guarantee of due process
of law, found in the Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, prohibits
all levels of government from arbitrarily or
unfairly depriving individuals of their basic con-
stitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.
The DUE PROCESS CLAUSE of the FIFTH AMEND-
MENT, ratified in 1791, asserts that no person
shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law.” This amendment
