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Can someone please explain substantive due process to me in plain English.
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:16 am
by ellewoods123
14a guarantees no state shall deny any person of life liberty or property without due process of law."
Where in that does SDP come from such that I link fundamental interests to SS review as opposed to liberty interests.
Help.
Re: Can someone please explain substantive due process to me in plain English.
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:17 am
by FSK
Go reread Caroline Products to start.
Re: Can someone please explain substantive due process to me in plain English.
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:21 am
by kkdk
Then Griswold..
Re: Can someone please explain substantive due process to me in plain English.
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:43 am
by morally0bese
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit the federal and state governments from depriving a person of their life, liberty or property without due process of the law. The Court has interpreted this provision to guarantee procedural due process- i.e. that governments must follow proper procedure (notice, having a trial like hearing, etc.) before, say, taking away government benefits or confining someone to jail. The Court has also interpreted this provision as guaranteeing substantive due process rights- i.e. that persons have certain fundamental rights that facilitate their right to life, liberty or property. The Court has excavated these fundamental rights by examining what rights Americans have historically held as fundamental- e.g. right to marry, right to travel freely, right to privacy, etc. Hopefully this is somewhat helpful.
Re: Can someone please explain substantive due process to me in plain English.
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 11:46 am
by hangingtree
In my own words, SDP protects the individual from government infringement on certain fundamental rights. The best definition for fundamental rights is: those rights which, at any one time, are considered by a majority of SCOTUS justices to be fundamental.
That is as far as I got

Hopefully someone can come along and explain how one might actually argue SDP in a court. (On that thought, perhaps find
Obergefell v. Hodges briefs and read those.)
ETA: Scooped by that someone
Re: Can someone please explain substantive due process to me in plain English.
Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2015 12:05 pm
by Ohiobumpkin
IDK. Ask a penumbra!