The Fifth Amendment says the government cannot take your life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment says the same thing - and applies it to every state and local government in the country. Those two sentences have been in the Constitution since 1791 and 1868 respectively. Most Americans have never been fully told what they actually require.
Due process is not a legal technicality. It is a specific constitutional command with a specific legal history, a specific body of Supreme Court decisions interpreting what it demands, and a specific set of procedural tools that every citizen can use to demand fair treatment before the government acts against them. Before your benefits can be terminated, the government must give you due process. Before your license can be revoked, the government must give you due process. Before your property can be seized, before you can be fired from a government job, before a criminal conviction can be entered against you - the government must give you due process. What that means in practice, what it actually requires in each of those situations, and what happens when the government falls short is where most Americans' understanding ends and where this book begins.
Adrian Shapiro's Due Process: The Constitutional Shield They Hope You Forget is the complete documented guide to the constitutional guarantee that stands between every American and arbitrary government power. It covers the full legal history of due process from Magna Carta through the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the current Supreme Court. It explains the two dimensions of due process - procedural and substantive - in plain language any reader can understand and apply. It walks through what due process requires at every stage of every type of government proceeding - criminal, civil, and administrative. It examines the Mathews v. Eldridge balancing test that determines what process is actually due in any specific situation. It documents the systematic erosion of due process protections through administrative convenience, plea bargaining pressure, and civil forfeiture procedure design. And it hands every reader the specific practical tools to identify a due process violation when it occurs and pursue every available remedy when it does.
This book covers the Brady disclosure obligation and how its materiality standard has been applied in ways that make enforcement difficult. It covers the plea bargaining system that resolves more than ninety-seven percent of federal criminal convictions and the constitutional framework - or the absence of one - that governs it. It covers Goldberg v. Kelly, the Loudermill hearing requirement, civil commitment due process, parental rights termination procedure, and the civil asset forfeiture system designed to minimize contestability. It covers Section 1983 civil rights claims, qualified immunity, Monell municipal liability, and the post-AEDPA habeas corpus framework. And it closes with a complete practical reference - a due process arsenal covering every right, every tool, and every resource available to citizens asserting their constitutional protections in any government proceeding.
The government is required to justify what it takes from you. This book explains exactly what that justification must look like, exactly what you are entitled to demand, and exactly what to do when the government pretends otherwise.
