The Due Process Clause: Analyzing The Supreme Court's Substantive Due Process Jurisprudence

• Main Author: Eaton, Eleanor
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2017
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1608; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2723&context=cmc_theses

In our system of government, the Constitution has conferred a guarantees of certain rights to its citizens. Yet, some rights not in the provisions of the Constitution have been granted by the Court to be protected. These rights have come to be protected under the due process clause, which have regarded certain rights so fundamental or significant that they require protection from the government. As such, this is known as substantive due process of the law. Not without its critics, substantive due process is one of the most contentious areas of constitutional law. By examining constitutional interpretation theories and historical Supreme Court decisions, I analyze the use of substantive due process applied to economic regulations and the Court’s shift into applying the same doctrine to include other modern civil rights and liberties.