This is a part of the fifth amendment to the Federal Constitution, and the fourteenth is an expansion of it, and assumes that the man charged with the crime is innocent until proven guilty. The old standard set in Europe was that a person charged with crime was considered guilty until he was proven innocent. All citizens, whether native or foreign born, have the protection of this amendment.—Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Vol. I, p. 622.
Previous to 1679 in England an accused person could be detained in prison for months or even for years and had no recourse to the courts, but might be thus detained in prison upon a mere charge brought by some one jealous of him and without real reason. In that year the people demanded that Parliament should give relief against unjust or false imprisonment, and Parliament enacted the Habeas Corpus Act. The provisions of this notable act require that a person imprisoned may demand a preliminary hearing and learn the cause of his being seized and imprisoned. Either he or his friends or relatives could go before a judge of a court and demand a writ of habeas corpus. Such writ was issued by a judge and directed to the jailer or the person detaining the accused and he was compelled to bring the accused person before the court and show legal reason why that person should be detained. If no such cause or reason could be given, the accused person must be set at liberty. The guaranty of the right to a writ of habeas corpus under our Constitution is considered hereafter. See page [144].
Due process of law may be defined as “according to the law of the place in which the trial is held”. It means in this instance that no person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without the right of judicial trial. Due process of law does not necessarily mean jury trial. If a jury trial is the legally recognized method of trying such case, then jury trial is due process, but if trial without a jury is legally provided for when permitted by the Constitution, in that instance, due process does not require jury trial. For cases in which the right of trial by jury is guaranteed see pages [111], [125], and [160].
“In a word, ‘due process of law’ to-day signifies ‘reasonable law’, in which sense it bestows upon the courts, and especially upon the Federal Courts, as final interpreter of the national constitution, a practically undefined range of supervision over legislation both state and national.”—Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. I, p. 615.
“Due process of law, is law in its regular course of administration through courts of justice.”—Story's Commentaries, Vol. III, pp. 264, 661;—18 Howard 272.
“Any legal proceeding enforced by public authority, whether sanctioned by age or custom, or newly devised in the discretion of the legislative power, in furtherance of the general public good, which regards and preserves these principles of liberty and justice.”—110 U. S. 516.
“Due process of law in each particular case means, such an exercise of the powers of government as the settled maxims of the law permit and sanction, and under such safeguards for the protection of the individual rights as those maxims prescribe for the class of cases to which the one in question belongs.”—Cooley's Constitutional Limitations, p. 441.
“This provision does not imply that all trials in state courts affecting the property of persons must be by jury.” This depends to some extent upon the constitution of the respective states, except as limited by the United States Constitution.—92 U. S. 90.
Constitution of the United States, Amendment V.
Eminent domain means the right and authority of the government to take private property for public purposes upon the payment of a just compensation.