Due Process

The Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights states that no person can be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law....”

The 14th Amendment says that states cannot deprive “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....”

Due process of law comes in two parts.  Say you are arrested for murder.  You must be told your rights when you are arrested.  You have a right to an attorney.  You can ask for a jury trial.  You can appeal.  Those kinds of rights are called procedural due process.

Now suppose you are arrested for running a red light.  You are told your rights.  You have a hearing.  You plead guilty.  You are then sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.  You received procedural due process, but the sentence would have been a denial of your substantive due process.

If you are picked up by ICE agents and sent to prison in El Salvador, you have been denied both procedural and substantive due process, both guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment.  That is what the Trump administration is doing.  It is violating our constitutional rights.  We have a constitutional crisis.  Right now.