Opinion ID: 520691
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Liberty and Property Interests

Text: 23  'Liberty' and 'property' are broad and majestic terms. They are among the 'great constitutional concepts purposely left to gather meaning from experience. They relate to the whole domain of social and economic fact, and the statesmen who founded this Nation knew too well that only a stagnant society remains unchanged.'  Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. at 571, 92 S.Ct. at 2705 (quoting National Insurance Co. v. Tidewater Co., 337 U.S. 582, 646, 69 S.Ct. 1173, 1209, 93 L.Ed. 1556 (1949) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting)). 24 Liberty and property, as judicial terms of art, have not been defined. The conceptualization of liberty and property has evolved over time. Property interests protected by procedural due process extend well beyond actual ownership of real estate, chattels, or money. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. at 572, 92 S.Ct. at 2706. Due process protection from deprivations of liberty extend beyond the sort of formal constraints imposed by the criminal process. Although the Supreme Court has not defined liberty with any great precision, that term is not confined to mere freedom from bodily restraint. Board of Regents v. Roth at 572, 92 S.Ct. at 2706; Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 499, 74 S.Ct. 693, 694, 98 L.Ed. 884 (1954). While the Supreme Court has eschewed rigid or formalistic limitations on the protection of procedural due process, it has at the same time observed certain boundaries which conceptualize liberty and property. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. at 572, 92 S.Ct. at 2706.