Issue: Under federal law, how to courts determine if a deprivation of rights resulted from a violation of due process?
| Area of Law: | Constitutional Law |
| Keywords: | Procedural due process; Deprivation |
| Jurisdiction: | Federal |
| Cited Cases: | None |
| Cited Statutes: | None |
| Date: | 10/01/2014 |
Procedural due process protects against the deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. It is, thus, a two-part inquiry: there must be a deprivation and that deprivation must have occurred without “due process.” What process is due is determined by applying a balancing test which the Supreme Court set out in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 335 (1976):
First, the private interest that will be affected by the official action; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and finally, the Government’s interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail.
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