Due Process of Law

The United States Constitution refers twice to "due process of law". Every act of government which seriously interferes with the enjoyment of a right by anyone must accord with a due process of law. There were, from the beginning of the federation, provisions in state constitutions which in various kinds of language indicated that state and local governments were to proceed according to "due process of law" or in keeping with "the law of the land". To destroy the value of the liquor already on hand, said one of the judges, would be a violation of the constitution, even though done "by the forms which belong to due process of law". The constitutional provision invoked is the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment governing the States, as the due process clause invoked in the Adkins Case governed Congress. The Supreme Court decisions which interpret and apply the due-process clauses run into the hundreds.