My question is about the 14th amendment and the precise meaning of the word liberty. The amendment states, “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, …” In my daily use of the word, liberty encompasses both life and property.
So my questions are: What specifically does liberty mean in the context of the 14th amendment? Is this meaning retained in other instances in the Constitution and Declaration?
In context, it seems that the Due Process Clause means that one cannot be executed, jailed, or fined without first having had access to the traditional Anglo-American adversarial process. The best discussion by far is to be found in Raoul Berger’s GOVERNMENT BY JUDICIARY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT, and he elaborated on that in THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND THE BILL OF RIGHTS.
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