Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/211/78/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 18:50:19+00:00

Document:
The judicial act of the highest court of a State, in authoritatively construing and enforcing its laws, is the act of the State.
Exemption from compulsory self-incrimination in the state courts is not secured by any part of the Federal Constitution.
There is a citizenship of the United States and a citizenship of the State which are distinct from each other, Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wall. 36, and privileges and immunities, although fundamental, which do not arise out of the nature and character of the National Government, or are not specifically protected by the Federal Constitution, are attributes of state, and not of National, citizenship.
The first eight Amendments are restrictive only of National action, and, while the Fourteenth Amendment restrained and limited state action, it did not take up and protect citizens of the States from action by the States as to all matters enumerated in the first eight Amendments.
The words "due process of law," as used in the Fourteenth Amendment, are intended to secure the individual from the arbitrary exercise of powers of government unrestrained by the established principles of private right and distributive justice, Bank v. Okely, 4 Wheat. 235, but that does not require that he be exempted from compulsory self-incrimination in the courts of a State that has not adopted the policy of such exemption.
and privileges of citizens of the United States, or an element of due process of law within the meaning of the Federal Constitution or the Fourteenth Amendment thereto.
The fact that exemption from compulsory self-incrimination is specifically enumerated in the guarantees of the Fifth Amendment tends to show that it was, and is to be, regarded as a separate right, and not as an element of due process of law.
When a question is no longer open in this court, adverse arguments, although weighty, will not be considered; and, under the doctrine of stare decisis, 83 U. S. 16 Wall. 36, and Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U. S. 581, approved and followed.
Quare and not decided whether an instruction that the jury may draw an unfavorable inference from the failure of the accused to testify in denial of evidence tending to criminate him amounts to a violation of the privilege of immunity from self-incrimination.
"Every director, officer, agent or clerk of any trust company who willfully and knowingly subscribes or makes any false statement of facts or false entries in the books of such trust company, or knowingly subscribes or exhibits any false paper, with intent to deceive any person authorized to examine as to the condition of such trust company, or willfully or knowingly subscribes to or makes any false report, shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor and punished accordingly."
"Monmouth Trust & Safe Deposit Co., Asbury Park, N.J."
"A special meeting of the board of directors of this company was held at the office of the company on Monday, Feb. 9th, 1903."
"There were present the following directors: George F. Kroehl, S. A. Patterson, G. B. M. Harvey, A. C. Twining, D. C. Cornell."
"The minutes of the regular meeting held Jan. 15th, 1903, were read, and on motion duly approved."
"All loans taken since the last meeting were gone over carefully, and, upon motion duly seconded, were unanimously approved."
"A resolution that this company buy 381 shares of the stock of the First National Bank at $44,875 was adopted."
"On motion, the meeting adjourned."
the paper charged in the indictment certifies in effect that a special meeting of the board of directors of this company was held at the office of the company on Monday, February 9, 1903. There were present the following directors: George F. Kroehl, S. A. Patterson, G. B. M. Harvey, A. C. Twining, D. C. Cornell."
"Among other things appears a resolution of this company to buy 381 shares of the stock of the First National Bank at $44,875, which was adopted."
"Now, was that meeting held, or not?"
"The papers says that at this meeting were present, among others, Patterson, Twining and Cornell."
"Mr. Patterson has gone upon the stand and has testified that there was no such meeting to his knowledge; that he was not present at any such meeting; that he had no notice of any such meeting, and that he never acquiesced, as I understand, in any way in the passage of a resolution for the purchase of this stock."
"Now Twining and Cornell, this paper says, were present. They are here in court, and have seen this paper offered in evidence, and they know that this paper says that they were the two men, or two of the men, who were present. Neither of them has gone upon the stand to deny that they were present or to show that the meeting was held."
"Now it is not necessary for these men to prove their innocence. It is not necessary for them to prove that this meeting was held. But the fact that they say off the stand, having heard testimony which might be prejudicial to them, without availing themselves of the right to go upon the stand and contradict it, is sometimes a matter of significance."
"Now, of course, in this action, I do not see how that can have much weight, because these men deny that they exhibited the paper, and if one of these men exhibited the paper and the other did not, I do not see how you could say that the person who claims he did not exhibit the paper would be under any obligation at all to go upon the stand. Neither is under any obligation. It is simply a right they have to go upon the stand, and, consequently, the fact that they do not go upon the stand to contradict this statement in the minutes, they both denying, through their counsel and through their plea, that they exhibited the paper, I do not see that that can be taken as at all prejudicial to either of them. They simply have the right to go upon the stand, and they have not availed themselves of it, and it may be that there is no necessity for them to go there. I leave that entirely to you."
"Now gentlemen, if you believe that is so; if you believe this testimony that Cornell did direct this man's attention to it -- Cornell has sat here and heard that testimony and has not denied it -- nobody could misunderstand the import of that testimony, it was a direct accusation made against him of his guilt -- if you believe that testimony beyond a reasonable doubt, Cornell is guilty. He was not called upon to go upon the stand and deny it, but he did not go upon the stand and deny it, and it is for you to take that into consideration."
"Now Twining has also sat here and heard this testimony, but you will observe there is this distinction as to the conduct of these two men in this respect: the accusation against Cornell was specific by Vreedenberg. It is rather inferential, if at all, against Twining, and he might say -- it is for you to say whether he might say,"
"Well, I don't think the accusation against me is made with such a degree of certainty as to require me to deny it, and I shall not; nobody will think it strange if I do not go upon the stand to deny it, because Vreedenberg is uncertain as to whether I was there; he won't swear that I was there."
"So, consequently, the fact that Twining did not go upon the stand can have no significance at all."
"You may say that the fact that Cornell did not go upon the stand has no significance. You may say so because the circumstances may be such that there should be no inference drawn of guilt or anything of that kind from the fact that he did not go upon the stand. Because a man does not go upon the stand, you are not necessarily justified in drawing an inference of guilt. But you have a right to consider the fat that he does not go upon the stand where a direct accusation is made against him."
The question duly brought here by writ of error is whether the parts of the charge set forth, affirmed as they were by the Court of last resort of the State, are in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
State, in authoritatively construing and enforcing its laws, is the act of the State. Ex parte Virginia, 100 U. S. 339; Scott v. McNeal, 154 U. S. 34; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226. The general question, therefore, is whether such a law violates the Fourteenth Amendment either by abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States or by depriving persons of their life, liberty or property without due process of law. In order to bring themselves within the protection of the Constitution, it is incumbent on the defendants to prove two propositions: first, that the exemption from compulsory self-incrimination is guaranteed by the Federal Constitution against impairment by the States; and, second, if it be so guaranteed, that the exemption was, in fact, impaired in the case at bar. The first proposition naturally presents itself for earlier consideration. If the right here asserted is not a Federal right, that is the end of the case. We have no authority to go further and determine whether the state court has erred in the interpretation and enforcement of its own laws.
himself in a common court of law or in any other court, but in such cases as have been usually practiced in this State or may hereafter be directed by the legislature;"
"that there is a citizenship of the United States and a citizenship of a State, which are distinct from each other, and which depend upon different characteristics or circumstances in the individual."
"The fundamental rights, privileges and immunities which belong to him as a free man and a free citizen, now belong to him as a citizen of the United States, and are not dependent upon his citizenship of any State. . . . The Amendment does not attempt to confer any new privileges or immunities upon citizens, or to enumerate or define those already existing. It assumes that there are such privileges and immunities which belong of right to citizens as such, and ordains that they shall not be abridged by state legislation. If this inhibition has no reference to privileges and immunities of this character, but only refers, as held by the majority of the court in their opinion, to such privileges and immunities as were before its adoption specially designated in the Constitution or necessarily implied as belonging to citizens of the United States, it was a vain and idle enactment, which accomplished nothing, and most unnecessarily excited Congress and the people on its passage. With privileges and immunities thus designated or implied, no State could ever have interfered by its laws, and no new constitutional provision was required to inhibit such interference. The supremacy of the Constitution and laws of the United States always controlled any state legislation of that character. But if the Amendment refers to the natural and inalienable rights which belong to all citizens, the inhibition has a profound significance and consequence. "
"The opinion upon the matters actually involved and maintained by the judgment in the case has never been doubted or overruled by any judgment of this court."
for a lawful purpose (it not appearing that the purpose had any reference to the National Government) was not a right secured by the Constitution of the United States, although it was said that the right existed before the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and that "it is and always has been one of the attributes of citizenship under a free government." United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 92 U. S. 551. And see Hodges v. United States, 203 U. S. 1. In each case, the Slaughter-House Cases were cited by the court, and in the latter case, the rights described by Mr. Justice Washington were again treated as rights of state citizenship under state protection. If then it be assumed, without deciding the point, that an exemption from compulsory self-incrimination is what is described as a fundamental right belonging to all who live under a free government, and incapable of impairment by legislation or judicial decision, it is, so far as the States are concerned, a fundamental right inherent in state citizenship, and is a privilege or immunity of that citizenship only. Privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, on the other hand, are only such as arise out of the nature and essential character of the National Government, or are specifically granted or secured to all citizens or persons by the Constitution of the United States. Slaughter-House Cases, supra, p. 83 U. S. 79; In re Kemmler, 136 U. S. 436, 136 U. S. 448; Duncan v. Missouri, 152 U. S. 377, 152 U. S. 382.
Thus, among the rights and privileges of National citizenship recognized by this court are the right to pass freely from State to State, Crandall v. Nevada, 6 Wall. 35; the right to petition Congress for a redress of grievances, United States v. Cruikshank, supra; the right to vote for National officers, Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651; Wiley v. Sinkler, 179 U. S. 58; the right to enter the public lands, United States v. Waddell, 112 U. S. 76; the right to be protected against violence while in the lawful custody of a United States marshal, Logan v. United States, 144 U. S. 263, and the right to inform the United States authorities of violation of its laws, In re Quarles, 158 U. S. 532.
and in respect of the right to be confronted with witnesses, contained in the Sixth Amendment. West v. Louisiana, 194 U. S. 258. In Maxwell v. Dow, supra, where the plaintiff in error had been convicted in a state court of a felony upon an information, and by a jury of eight persons, it was held that the indictment, made indispensable by the Fifth Amendment, and the trial by jury guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, were not privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as those words were used in the Fourteenth Amendment. The discussion in that case ought not to be repeated. All the arguments for the other view were considered and answered, the authorities were examined and analyzed, and the decision rested upon the ground that this clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not forbid the States to abridge the personal rights enumerated in the first eight Amendments, because those rights were not within the meaning of the clause "privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States." If it be possible to render the principle which governed the decision more clear, it is done so by the dissent of Mr. Justice Harlan. We conclude, therefore, that the exemption from compulsory self-incrimination is not a privilege or immunity of National citizenship guaranteed by this clause of the Fourteenth Amendment against abridgment by the States.
"no freeman shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseised, or outlawed, or exiled, or any wise destroyed; nor shall we go upon him, nor send upon him, but by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land."
"which is not otherwise forbidden, must be taken to be due process of law, if it can show the sanction of settled usage both in England and this country."
Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 110 U. S. 528.
Second. It does not follow, however, that a procedure settled in English law at the time of the emigration, and brought to this country and practiced by our ancestors, is an essential element of due process of law. If that were so, the procedure of the first half of the seventeenth century would be fastened upon the American jurisprudence like a straightjacket, only to be unloosed by constitutional amendment. That, said Mr. Justice Matthews, in the same case, p. 110 U. S. 529, "would be to deny every quality of the law but its age, and to render it incapable of progress or improvement." Holden v. Hardy, 169 U. S. 366, 169 U. S. 388; Brown v. New Jersey, 175 U. S. 172, 175 U. S. 175.
"were intended to secure the individual from the arbitrary exercise of the powers of government, unrestrained by the established principles of private rights and distributive justice."
Bank of Columbia v. Okely, 4 Wh. 235, 17 U. S. 244 (approved in Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 110 U. S. 527; Leeper v. Texas, 139 U. S. 462, 139 U. S. 468; Scott v. McNeal, 154 U. S. 34, 154 U. S. 45).
with precision the words 'due process of law.' . . . It is sufficient to say that there are certain immutable principles of justice which inhere in the very idea of free government which no member of the Union may disregard."
"The same words refer to that law of the land in each State, which derives its authority from the inherent and reserved powers of the State, exerted within the limits of those fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions."
In re Kemmler, 136 U. S. 436, 136 U. S. 448.
"The limit of the full control which the State has in the proceedings of its courts, both in civil and criminal cases, is subject only to the qualification that such procedure must not work a denial of fundamental rights or conflict with specific and applicable provisions of the Federal Constitution."
West v. Louisiana, 194 U. S. 258, 194 U. S. 263.
"The prisoner, in nearly every instance, asked, as a favor, that he might not be overpowered by the eloquence of counsel denouncing him in a set speech, but, in consideration of the weakness of his memory, might be allowed to answer separately to the different matters which might be alleged against him. This was usually granted, and the result was that the trial became a series of excited altercations between the prisoner and the different counsel opposed to him. Every statement of counsel operated as a question to the prisoner, and indeed they were constantly thrown into the form of questions, the prisoner either admitting or denying or explaining what was alleged against him. The result was that, during the period in question, the examination of the prisoner, which is at present scrupulously and I think even pedantically avoided, was the very essence of the trial, and his answers regulated the production of the evidence; the whole trial, in fact, was a long argument between the prisoner and counsel for the Crown, in which they questioned each other and grappled with each other's arguments with the utmost eagerness and closeness of reasoning."
"In some cases, the prisoner was questioned, but never to any greater extent than that which it is practically impossible to avoid when a man has to defend himself without counsel. When so questioned, the prisoners usually refused to answer."
has been deemed an equivalent expression, but, on the contrary, is regarded as separate from and independent of due process. It came into existence not as an essential part of due process, but as a wise and beneficent rule of evidence developed in the course of judicial decision. This is a potent argument when it is remembered that the phrase was borrowed from English law, and that to that law we must look at least for its primary meaning.
it, is silent upon the practice of compulsory self-incrimination, though it was then a matter of common occurrence in all the courts of the realm. The Bill of Rights of the first year of the reign of William and Mary (1689) is likewise silent, though the practice of questioning the prisoner at his trial had not then ceased. The negative argument which arises out of the omission of all reference to any exemption from compulsory self-incrimination in these three great declarations of English liberty (though it is not supposed to amount to a demonstration) is supported by the positive argument that the English Courts and Parliaments, as we have seen, have dealt with the exemption as they would have dealt with any other rule of evidence, apparently without a thought that the question was affected by the law of the land of Magna Carta, or the due process of law which is its equivalent.
"No person ought to be taken, imprisoned or deprived of his freehold, or be exiled or deprived of his privileges, franchises, life, liberty or property but by due process of law;"
in 1821 and Rhode Island in 1842 (its first constitution). This survey does not tend to show that it was then in this country the universal or even general belief that the privilege ranked among the fundamental and inalienable rights of mankind, and, what is more important here, it affirmatively shows that the privilege was not conceived to be inherent in due process of law, but, on the other hand, a right separate, independent and outside of due process. Congress, in submitting the amendments to the several States, treated the two rights as exclusive of each other. Such also has been the view of the States in framing their own constitutions, for in every case, except in New Jersey and Iowa, where the due process clause or its equivalent is included, it has been thought necessary to include separately the privilege clause. Nor have we been referred to any decision of a state court save one (State v. Height, 117 Iowa, 650), where the exemption has been held to be required by due process of law. The inference is irresistible that it has been the opinion of constitution makers that the privilege, if fundamental in any sense, is not fundamental in due process of law, nor an essential part of it. We believe that this opinion is proved to have been correct by every historical test by which the meaning of the phrase can be tried.
v. McDonough, 204 U. S. 8, and that there shall be notice and opportunity for hearing given the parties, Hovey v. Elliott, 167 U. S. 409; Roller v. Holly, 176 U. S. 398, and see Londoner v. Denver, 210 U. S. 373. Subject to these two fundamental conditions, which seem to be universally prescribed in all systems of law established by civilized countries, this court has up to this time sustained all state laws, statutory or judicially declared, regulating procedure, evidence and methods of trial, and held them to be consistent with due process of law. Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U. S. 90; Re Converse, 137 U. S. 624; Caldwell v. Texas, 137 U. S. 692; Leeper v. Texas, 139 U. S. 462; Hallinger v. Davis, 146 U. S. 314; McNulty v. California, 149 U. S. 645; McKane v. Durston, 153 U. S. 684; Iowa Central v. Iowa, 160 U. S. 389; Lowe v. Kansas, 163 U. S. 81; Allen v. Georgia, 166 U. S. 138; Hodgson v. Vermont, 168 U. S. 262; Brown v. New Jersey, 175 U. S. 172; Bollin v. Nebraska, 176 U. S. 83; Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U. S. 581; Simon v. Craft, 182 U. S. 427; West v. Louisiana, 194 U. S. 258; Marvin v. Trout, 199 U. S. 212; Rogers v. Peck, 199 U. S. 425; Howard v. Kentucky, 200 U. S. 164; Rawlins v. Georgia, 201 U. S. 638; Felts v. Murphy, 201 U. S. 123.
power of the State to determine by what process legal rights may be asserted or legal obligations be enforced, provided the method of procedure adopted gives reasonable notice and affords fair opportunity to be heard before the issues are decided;"
"It is no longer open to contention that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States does not control mere forms of procedure in state courts or regulate practice therein. All its requirements are complied with, provided in the proceedings which are claimed not to have been due process of law the person condemned has had sufficient notice and adequate opportunity has been afforded him to defend;"
"The Fourteenth Amendment does not control the power of a State to determine the form of procedure by which legal rights may be ascertained, if the method adopted gives reasonable notice and affords a fair opportunity to be heard;"
"Due process of law, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, does not require the State to adopt a particular form of procedure, so long as it appears that the accused has had sufficient notice of the accusation and an adequate opportunity to defend himself in the prosecution."
for the whole court, said, in effect, that the Fourteenth Amendment would not prevent a State from adopting or continuing the civil law instead of the common law. This dictum has been approved and made an essential part of the reasoning of the decision in Holden v. Hardy, 169 U. S. 387, 169 U. S. 389, and Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U. S. 598. The statement excludes the possibility that the privilege is essential to due process, for it hardly need be said that the interrogation of the accused at his trial is the practice in the civil law.
to the satisfaction of their own people up to the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. No reason is perceived why they cannot continue to do so. The power of their people ought not to be fettered, their sense of responsibility lessened, and their capacity for sober and restrained self-government weakened by forced construction of the Federal Constitution. If the people of New Jersey are not content with the law as declared in repeated decisions of their courts, the remedy is in their own hands. They may, if they choose, alter it by legislation, as the people of Maine did when the courts of that State made the same ruling. State v. Bartlett, 55 Maine 200; State v.Lawrence, 57 Maine 574; State v. Cleaves, 59 Maine 298; State v. Banks, 78 Maine 490, 492; Rev.Stat. ch. 135, § 19.
I feel constrained by a sense of duty to express my nonconcurrence in the action of the court in this present case.
four years. The judgment of conviction was affirmed, first in the Supreme Court of the State, afterwards in the Court of Errors and Appeals. The case was brought here for review, and the accused assigned for error that the mode of proceeding during the trial was such as to deny them a right secured by the Constitution of the United States, namely, the right of an accused not to be compelled to testify against himself.
"We have assumed, only for the purpose of discussion, that what was done in the case at bar was an infringement of the privilege against self-incrimination."
"We do not intend, however, to lend any countenance to the truth of that assumption. The courts of New Jersey, in adopting the rule of law which is complained of here, have deemed it consistent with the privilege itself."
of immunity from self-incrimination, the court, for the purpose only of discussion, has entered upon the academic inquiry whether a State may, without violating the Constitution of the United States, compel one accused of crime to be a witness against himself -- a question of vast moment, one of such transcendent importance that a court ought not to decide it unless the record before it requires that course to be adopted. It is entirely consistent with the opinion just delivered that the court thinks that what is complained of as having been done at the trial of the accused was not, in law, an infringement of the privilege of immunity from self-incrimination. Yet, as stated, the court, in its wisdom, has forborne to say whether, in its judgment, that privilege was, in fact, violated in the state court, but, simply for the purpose of discussion, has proceeded on the assumption that the privilege was disregarded at the trial.
As a reason why it takes up first the question of the power of a State, so far as the Federal Constitution is concerned, to compel self-incrimination, the court says that, if the right here asserted is not a Federal right, that is an end of the case, and it must not go further. It would, I submit, have been more appropriate to say that, if no ground whatever existed, under the facts disclosed by the record, to contend that a Federal right had been violated, this court would be without authority to go further and express its opinion on an abstract question relating to the powers of the State under the Constitution.
the same offense. We went no further, but dismissed the writ of error, declining to consider the grave constitutional question pressed upon our attention, namely, whether the jeopardy clause of the Federal Constitution operated as a restraint upon the States in the execution of their criminal laws. But as a different course has been pursued in this case, I must of necessity consider the sufficiency of the grounds upon which the court bases its present judgment of affirmance.
The court, in its consideration of the relative rights of the United States and of the several States, holds in this case that, without violating the Constitution of the United States, a State can compel a person accused of crime to testify against himself. In my judgment, immunity from self-incrimination is protected against hostile state action not only by that clause in the Fourteenth Amendment declaring that "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," but by the clause, in the same Amendment, "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law." No argument is needed to support the proposition that, whether manifested by statute or by the final judgment of a court, state action, if liable to the objection that it abridges the privileges or immunities of National citizenship, must also be regarded as wanting in the due process of law enjoined by the Fourteenth Amendment when such state action substantially affects life, liberty or property.
did not impose any restraint upon a State or upon a state tribunal or agency. The original Amendments of the Constitution had their origin, as all know, in the belief of many patriotic statesmen in the States then composing the Union that, under the Constitution as originally submitted to the People for adoption or rejection, the National Government might disregard the fundamental principles of Anglo-American liberty for the maintenance of which our fathers took up arms against the mother country.
"When the first Continental Congress of 1774 claimed to be entitled to the benefit not only of the common law of England, but of such of the English statutes as existed at the time of the colonization, and which they had by experience found to be applicable to their several local and other circumstances, they simply declared the basic principle of English law that English subjects going to a new and uninhabited country carry with them, as their birthright, the laws of England existing when the colonization takes place. . . . English law, public and private, continued in force in all the States that became sovereign in 1776, each State declaring for itself the date from which it would recognize it."
"by emigration to the colonies, the people by no means forfeited, surrendered or lost any of those rights, but that they were then, and their descendants are now, entitled to the exercise and enjoyment of them as their local and other circumstances enable them to exercise and enjoy."
fundamental in Anglo-American liberty. Hence the prompt incorporation into the Supreme Law of the Land of the original amendments. By the Fifth Amendment, as already stated, it was expressly declared that no one should be compelled in a criminal case to be a witness against himself. Those Amendments being adopted by the Nation, the People no longer feared that the United States or any Federal agency could exert power that was inconsistent with the fundamental rights recognized in those Amendments. It is to be observed that the Amendments introduced no principle not already familiar to liberty-loving people. They only put in the form of constitutional sanction, as barriers against oppression, the principles which the people of the colonies, with entire unanimity, deemed vital to their safety and freedom.
had become embodied in the common law and distinguished it from all other systems of jurisprudence. It was generally regarded then, as now, as a privilege of great value, a protection to the innocent though a shelter to the guilty, and a safeguard against heedless, unfounded or tyrannical prosecutions."
Such was the situation, the court concedes, at the time the Fourteenth Amendment was prepared and adopted. That Amendment declared that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States, "and of the State wherein they reside." Momentous as this declaration was in its political consequences, it was not deemed sufficient for the complete protection of the essential rights of National citizenship and personal liberty. Although the Nation was restrained by existing constitutional provisions from encroaching upon those rights, yet, so far as the Federal Constitution was concerned, the States could at that time have dealt with those rights upon the basis entirely of their own constitution and laws. It was therefore deemed necessary that the Fourteenth Amendment should, in the name of the United States, forbid, as it expressly does, any State from making or enforcing a law that will abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, or deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The privileges and immunities mentioned in the original Amendments, and universally regarded as our heritage of liberty from the common law, were thus secured to every citizen of the United States and placed beyond assault by any government, Federal or state, and due process of law, in all public proceedings affecting life, liberty or property, were enjoined equally upon the Nation and the States.
guarded them against any hostile state action that was wanting in due process of law.
"Now it is elementary knowledge that one cardinal rule of the court of chancery is never to decree a discovery which might tend to convict the party of a crime, or to forfeit his property. And any compulsory discovery by extorting the party's oath, or compelling the production of his private books and papers, to convict him of crime, or to forfeit his property, is contrary to the principles of a free government. It is abhorrent to the instincts of an Englishman; it is abhorrent to the instincts of an American. It may suit the purposes of despotic power, but it cannot abide the pure atmosphere of political liberty and personal freedom."
These observations were referred to approvingly in Counselman v. Hitchcock, 142 U. S. 547, 142 U. S. 580, 142 U. S. 581.
and seizures of one's person, house, papers or effects (Amdt. IV). Even if I were anxious or willing to cripple the operation of the Fourteenth Amendment by strained or narrow interpretations, I should feel obliged to hold that, when that Amendment was adopted, all these last-mentioned exemptions were among the immunities belonging to citizens of the United States which, after the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, no State could impair or destroy. But, as I read the opinion of the court, it will follow from the general principles underlying it, or from the reasoning pursued therein, that the Fourteenth Amendment would be no obstacle whatever in the way of a state law or practice under which, for instance, cruel or unusual punishments (such as the thumb screw, or the rack or burning at the stake) might be inflicted. So of a state law which infringed the right of free speech, or authorized unreasonable searches or seizures of persons, their houses, papers or effects, or a state law under which one accused of crime could be put in jeopardy twice or oftener, at the pleasure of the prosecution, for the same offense.
"The prohibition against depriving the citizen or subject of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law is not new in the constitutional history of the English race. It is not new in the constitutional history of this country, and it was not new in the Constitution of the United States when it became a part of the Fourteenth Amendment in the year 1866."
"In the series of amendments to the Constitution of the United States proposed and adopted immediately after the organization of the government, which were dictated by the jealousy of the States as further limitations upon the power of the Federal Government, it is found in the Fifth, in connection with other guarantees of personal rights of the same character."
"It is easy to see that, when the great barons of England wrung from King John, at the point of the sword, the concession that neither their lives nor their property should be disposed of by the crown except as provided by the law of the land, they meant by 'law of the land' the ancient and customary laws of the English people, or laws enacted by the Parliament of which those barons were a controlling element. It was not in their minds, therefore, to protect themselves against the enactment of laws by the Parliament of England. But when, in the year of grace 1866, there is placed in the Constitution of the United States a declaration that 'no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,' can a State make anything due process of law which, by its own legislation, it chooses to declare such? To affirm this is to hold that the prohibition to the States is of no avail, or has no application where the invasion of private rights is affected under the forms of state legislation."
approval. And the court having heretofore, upon the fullest consideration, declared that the compelling of a citizen of the United States, charged with crime, to be a witness against himself was a rule abhorrent to the instincts of Americans, was in violation of universal American law, was contrary to the principles of free government and a weapon of despotic power which could not abide the pure atmosphere of political liberty and personal freedom, I cannot agree that a State may make that rule a part of its law and binding on citizens despite the Constitution of the United States. No former decision of this court requires that we should now so interpret the Constitution.

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 § 19
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