Procedural Due Process

Question 1

Fifth Amendment applies to state or federal and says what?

Answer 1

“No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law” Applies federally.

Question 2

Fourteenth Amendment applies to state or federal and says what?

Answer 2

state action. “Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

Question 3

State Action Doctrine

Answer 3

The Constitution only acts as a limitation on the government.

Question 4

Exceptions to the State Action Doctrine

Answer 4

• The Constitution’s protections for individual rights can be applied to private actors when “there is a sufficiently close nexus between the State and the challenged action of the [private] entity so that the action of the latter may be fairly treated as that of the State itself.” Jackson v. Metropolitan Edison Co. (1971).
• public Function Exception – where private entity performs a task that has traditionally and exclusively been performed by the gov’t

Question 5

Example cases for exceptions to state action doctrine

Answer 5

• Smith v. Allwright
• Marsh v. Alabama
• Hudgens v. NLRB
• Manhattan Comm. Access Corp. v. Halleck

Question 6

Smith v. Allwright

Answer 6

the Supreme Court held that Texas’ grant to the Democratic Party of the power to establish voter qualifications is a delegation of state function that makes the party’s action the action of the State.

Question 7

Marsh v. Alabama

Answer 7

the Supreme Court held that individuals cannot be denied their Constitutional liberties simply because a private company has title to the town. “The more an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it.”

Question 8

Hudgens v. NLRB

Answer 8

Brief Fact Summary. Striking union members picketed in front of a retail store that was located within a shopping mall. The general manager of the mall threatened the picketers with arrest for trespassing if they would not leave.

Synopsis of Rule of Law. A private shopping mall is not the functional equivalent of a town and, therefore, not a state actor subject to the requirements of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (Constitution).

Question 9

Manhattan Comm. Access Corp. v. Halleck

Answer 9

the Supreme Court most recently held that operation of public access channels on a cable system is not a traditional, exclusive government function. When a private entity opens its property for speech by others it is not subject to the First Amendment.

Question 10

Entanglement Exception

Answer 10

where the gov’t has authorized, encouraged, or facilitated the unconstitutional conduct.

Question 11

Common areas where entanglement arises

Answer 11

• Judicial and law enforcement actions, e.g., Marsh
• Voter initiatives permitting discrimination, e.g., Allwright
• Gov’t licensing and regulation
• Gov’t subsidies

Question 12

Coercion Exception

Answer 12

the State may coerce or extraordinarily encourage the private actor to take an action such that the private actor has no voluntary choice.

Question 13

Shelley v. Kraemer

Answer 13

Judicial enforcement of a racially restrictive covenant amounts to state action, thereby subjecting the matter to the constraints of the 14th Amendment.

Question 14

The procedural Due Process questions to ask

Answer 14

1. Is there a life, liberty, or property interest at stake?
2. If so, what sort of notice and opportunity to be heard is required?

Question 15

Opportunity to be heard requires what

Answer 15

Opportunity to be heard (at meaningful time & meaningful manner)

Question 16

Loudermill

Answer 16

• security guard terminated for lying about felony.
  The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires a limited pre-termination hearing before the discharge of an employee who has a constitutionally protected property interest in his employment, followed by a more elaborate post-termination hearing to challenge the discharge
  *relates to opportunity to be heard

Question 17

Roth

Answer 17

Roth (defendant) operated a book-selling business in New York and was prosecuted for violating a federal obscenity statute that prohibited the mailing of “every obscene, lewd, lascivious, or filthy book, pamphlet, picture, paper, letter, writing, print, or other publication of an indecent character.”

*Obscenity is not a category protected by the first amendment.

Question 18

Perry v. Sindermann

Answer 18

A state college teacher is entitled to procedural due process prior to termination if the teacher has a property interest in continued employment.

(relates to property interests)

Question 19

A change in legal status is what?

Answer 19

A loss of liberty

Question 20

Paul v. Davis

Answer 20

loss of reputation alone is not enough. (Flyers passed out about criminal shoplifters)

Question 21

Constantineau

Answer 21

loss of reputation plus loss of previously held right (ability to purchase alch) is a loss of liberty. (A Wisconsin statute authorized police chiefs and other officials to forbid the sale of alcoholic beverages to persons whose use of such beverages endangered their families or the public peace.)

Question 22

Vitek

Answer 22

Liberty interests can arise from statutes, contracts or common law, but also may arise from the Constitution.

Question 23

How much process is due?
- Matthews v. Eldridge balancing test.

Answer 23

 How important is the private interest that will be affected by the official action?
 How great is the risk of erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used and what is the value of additional procedural safeguards?
 How important is the government’s interest, including the function involved, and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional procedural requirement would entail?

Question 24

Procedural Due Process Notes

Answer 24

*A person in jeopardy of serious loss [be given] notice of the case against him and opportunity to meet it.
- Financial cost alone is not controlling.

Question 25

How much process is due?

Answer 25

Matthews v. Eldridge Balancing test

How important is the private interest that will be affected by the official action?

How great is the risk of erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used and what is the value of additional procedural safeguards?

How important is the government’s interest, including the function involved, and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional procedural requirement would entail?