In any society that dares to call itself free, one principle must stand above all others: no person shall be punished, deprived, or condemned without fair process.
This is not a procedural technicality. It is not an inconvenience. It is the line between freedom and tyranny, between the rule of law and the rule of men.
Due process is what separates justice from vengeance, order from oppression, and democracy from dictatorship. The erosion of due process—whether through haste, fear, or populist rage—is not a sign of strength. It is the beginning of collapse.
A Foundation Built in Blood and Law
The importance of due process did not emerge by accident. It was forged in the fires of abuse.
In 1215, the barons of England forced King John to sign the Magna Carta, establishing for the first time that even a king could not imprison or punish someone arbitrarily. Clause 39 declared that “no free man shall be seized or imprisoned… except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land.” It was a radical assertion for its time: that the state could not act as accuser, judge, and executioner all in one.
That legacy coursed directly into the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment enshrines it with absolute clarity: “No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
The Fourteenth Amendment later extended this protection against state governments, recognizing that liberty without due process is merely license for the powerful to act with impunity.
The Founders understood what we seem to be forgetting: a government that can punish without process can do anything.
The Temptation to Bypass the Law
Across history, authoritarian regimes have begun with one justification: “We need action now! We can’t afford to wait.”
The French Revolution began with cries for liberty, equality, and fraternity—but devolved into the Reign of Terror, where due process was discarded in favor of revolutionary speed. The guillotine didn’t discriminate between tyrants and critics once the machinery of fear took over.
In Nazi Germany, the Reichstag Fire Decree and Enabling Act stripped citizens of legal protections. The judiciary became a weapon, and due process was reduced to a formality before execution. Dissent died, and with it, freedom.
Even in the United States, fear has repeatedly eroded this bedrock principle. Japanese Americans were interned during World War II without hearings, without charges, without cause. The McCarthy era saw lives destroyed by accusation alone. And in the post-9/11 era, we authorized detention without trial, extrajudicial killings, and secret surveillance—all in the name of security.
History shows that once you make exceptions to due process, it ceases to be a principle and becomes a privilege—reserved for the favored, denied to the feared.
The Present Danger: Expediency Over Principle
Today, we hear renewed calls to sidestep due process. Immigrants are too numerous, they say. The system is too slow. Why bother with hearings, with courts, with lawyers? Just deport. Just detain. Just act.
But if we accept that due process is optional for some, we accept that it is optional for all.
And what begins at the border rarely stays there.
The same logic can be—and has been—used to detain protestors, surveil journalists, and strip voting rights. It is only a matter of time before it is turned inward, against whoever the state deems inconvenient.
Due Process Is Not a Barrier—It Is the Bedrock
To some, due process seems like a roadblock—too slow, too complicated, too easy for the guilty to exploit. But this is a shallow view. Due process is not an obstacle to justice; it is the only path to justice that does not end in abuse.
It demands evidence, accountability, transparency. It forces the state to prove its case, not just assert it. And it protects not just the accused, but all of us—from the moment the accusation is made until the final judgment is rendered.
As Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter once wrote:
“The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards.”
Liberty Demands Discipline
A free society is not sustained by emotion, by slogans, or by raw force.w
It is sustained by discipline—the discipline to do things right, even when it’s hard.
Even when we hate the accused. Even when the public demands speed.
Even when it would be easier to just make someone disappear.
Because if we abandon due process for convenience, we will eventually abandon freedom itself.
We cannot afford that. Not now. Not ever.