Procedural Due Process

Amendment XIV.

Section 1.  . . . [N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . . . .

Amendment V.

Section 1.  No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . . . .

Current Issues

Due Process for Detainees in the War on Terror.  A divided Fourth Circuit ruled en banc on July 15, 2008, that the AUMF provided the President with authority to detain militarily foreign nationals as enemy combatants in the United States, but that the government violated a Qatari national's procedural due process rights (under Hamdi and Mathews v. Eldridge) by designating him an enemy combatant and detaining him militarily on the sole basis of a hearsay declaration of an individual with no personal knowledge of the alleged enemy combatant.  Judge Traxler's opinion is controlling, as he provided the decisive vote on both issues.  The court's per curiam opinion, along with the various individual opinions, are here; Judge Traxler's opinion runs from page 64 to page 99.