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The Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses

2 October, 2015 - 17:48

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  1. Define the B ill of Rights.
  2. Define the principle of selective incorporation.
  3. Distinguish between substantive and procedural due process.
  4. Compare void for vagueness and overbreadth.
  5. Ascertain the purpose of the equal protection clause as it applies t o criminal laws.

Although the legislative branch’s prohibited powers are in Article I of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights contains most of the constitutional protections afforded to criminal defendants. The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the Constitution. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment, which was added to the Constitution after the Civil War, has a plethora of protections for criminal defendants in the due process and equal protection clauses.

The Bill of Rights was originally written to apply to the federal government. However, US Supreme Court precedent has held that anyconstitutional amendment that is implicit to due process’s concept of ordered liberty must be incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections and applied to the states. 1 This doctrine is called selective incorporation, and it includes virtually all the constitutional protections in the Bill of Rights. Thus although the original focus of the Bill of Rights may have been limiting the federal government, modern interpretations of the Constitution ensure that its protections also extend to all levels o f state and local government.