ABSTRACT
Equality before the law especially means equality before the criminal law, the purposes of which are the protection of lives and property, the preservation of the community peace, and the prevention of crime. With the maturing of the egalitarian democracy in the present century, equality before the law has come to mean far more than a mere paternalistic concern for the subsistence welfare of “lesser breeds.” As the pursuit of equality in freedom gradually culminated in the modern democratic state, the concept of due process was undergoing an enormous transformation. Today, as any student of the government knows, the due process clause of the US Constitution imposes extremely strict substantive limitations upon governmental power. Equally important, the defendants’ rights Amendments are literally steeped in the ideals of the freedom and equality and the corollary ideal of distrust of big government.
