Due process is a fundamental component of the American system of law and justice. It has substantive and procedural components, and, at its core, is the thread of fundamental fairness that allows our judicial system to stand as an example for the world.
The intellectual foundation of due process can be tracked back to our nation’s founding and the founders’ quest to eliminate the risk of tyrannical governmental intrusions upon liberty. For example, in “Federalist Papers No. 84,” Alexander Hamilton, invoking the words of the 18th century British legal scholar Sir William Blackstone, wrote of due process:
