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In addition to rulings related to due process in trials, the Supreme Court made several rulings highlighting the importance of due process in police detentions in the 20th century. In 1936, the Court ruled that confessions extracted through coercion would not be acceptable as evidences. Initially, the court condemned "police brutality" and later extended it to "psychological as well as physical coercion of prisoners" (Lewis 97). In 1961, in the case of Mapp v. Ohio, the Court ruled that the Fourth Amendment prohibition on illegal seizure of property was applicable to state laws, affirming that "No illegally seized evidence could be admitted at state criminal trials" (Lewis 98). These rulings were essential in codifying due process in reference to criminal proceedings.
Sometimes, war-related events pressure government officials to review or suspend some of the provisions of the Constitution in relation to persons' rights. The question of due process of detention became a controversial issue after September 11 attacks on the United States. The Administration of George W. Bush suspended the writ of habeas corps for terror suspects locked up in Guantanamo Bay, various prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and other secret CIA prisons. The lawyer Alberto Gonzales claimed that some of the provisions of the Geneva Convention on the rights of war prisoners were "quaint" and "obsolete." Due process in dealing with both non-American and American citizens was disrupted in the name of "national security." These decisions by the Bush Administration, however, were bitterly criticized by civil rights lawyers. For example, Ronald...
He argues that the policies that prioritize absolute security at the expense of civil liberties are unjustified. Dworkin also argues that the U.S. Constitutional provisions should be extended to foreign nationals (most of the terror suspects held were Muslims). In times of war, however, the government should try to find a balance between the provisions that guarantee security and those of freedom and civil liberties. The historical cases when the due process was suspended vary from case to case. Abraham Lincoln's decision to suspend the writ of habeas corps remains controversial, while President Roosevelt's executive decision to lock up hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans today is widely regarded as illegal, immoral, and unnecessary. Therefore, detention of some highly dangerous terror suspects may be justified but such a practice should be an exception rather than the rule. The Bush Administration made it the rule, which resulted in the rounding up of thousands of innocent persons in many Muslim countries as well as Europe. That is against the U.S. And international laws -- also immoral and counterproductive.
Works Cited
Dworkin, Ronald. "Terror & the Attack on Civil Liberties." New York Review of Books. November 6, 2003.
Lewis,…
Works Cited
Dworkin, Ronald. "Terror & the Attack on Civil Liberties." New York Review of Books. November 6, 2003.
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon's Trumpet. New York: Random House, 1964.
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In modern criminal procedure and practice, the Sixth Amendment also provides specific requirements of police, such as where criminal defendants express the desire to consult legal counsel. Irrespective of whether or not such a request precedes or follows the common recitation of Miranda warnings by arresting authorities, the Supreme Court has now long-regarded any expression of request for legal counsel as the immediate cut-off point of any further questioning (Colon, 2004;
The goal of modern constitutional criminal procedure is to define principles of law enforcement that protect citizens from government intrusions that are unreasonable in their effect on personal liberties, while simultaneously facilitating the reasonable enforcement of law and protection of society by prosecuting and punishing criminal conduct. One of the first principles in early American constitutional history was the idea that it was more beneficial to society and its citizens to
This 'law and order' approach, however, will tend to invoke discomfort amongst civil libertarians, who will object to the danger that this poses to the constitution. Accordingly, we consider the Due Process Model of criminal justice, which U.S. Legal (2010) identifies as a mode of administration which emphasizes procedural regularity, adherence to the terms of the Constitution and meaningful commitment to the notion of innocent until proven guilty. As USLegal
Supp. 749 (S.D. Miss1987), the court held that "The primary thrust of the educational process is classroom instruction; therefore minimum due process procedures may be required if an exclusion from the classroom would effectively deprive the student of instruction and the opportunity to learn. 676 F. Supp. 749, 752. Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651 (1977). In Ingraham, petitioner students filed an action pursuant to 42 U.S.C.S. § 1981-1988, seeking damages
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