Amendment V

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation."

Comments by Nate Segal

The Fifth Amendment contains three clauses that restrain Federal powers:

1. A citizen is entitled to public processes before entering court if they are accused of a crime.

   In tyrannies of all sorts, a citizen may be hauled away from their home in the midst of night and disappear. Only if the government wishes, it lets it be known that the citizen has been arrested for a serious crime and may face trial.

   Often, these governments remain silent about the whereabouts of the person and rebuff inquiries from the public.

   Some states have used this approach to suppress political dissent. Think of Iran today, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, the former Soviet Union, and the period of the military junta in Argentina.

   The English Crown was known to spirit away landowners because the Crown coveted land. No sooner was the landowner gone than the Crown took possession of his land.

   The colonists were probably aware of what an absolute monarch could and did do. If the landed gentry were not safe on their land, how much more so the ordinary citizen?

2. A citizen need not defend his or her innocence. The burden of proof falls on the government.

   If the Federal government fails to prove its case in the first trial, this amendment forbids the government from trying the citizen again.

   A common strategy in totalitarian regimes is to "discover" new evidence which is actually manufactured. For example, the government threatens another citizen to bear false witness or suffer dire consequences.

3. The Federal government may exercise eminent domain for a public purpose in a public way. Also, when the property owner is compensated, the government has no power to keep the amount of compensation a secret.

   Recent disturbing rulings concerning taking private property for so-called public use seem to have given local jurisdictions unprecedented powers. New Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ruled in a Connecticut case that a local jurisdiction could condemn private business and residential land to resell this land to a private developer for redevelopment at a profit.