The Fifth Amendment: Due Process.

As you've probably heard by now.

Yesterday (24/6/) the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) overturned the previous SCOTUS ruling in Roe v Wade (1973).

This is widely and wrongly being reported as granting a Constitutional right to abortion. Despite there, clearly, being no such clause in the US Constitution.

The ruling on Roe v Wade rested on the Due Process clause of the US Constitution. The Fifth Amendment.

Following the US Civil War it was felt that it needed to be made explicit to the Democrat controlled Southern States that the law also applied to them. The 14th Amendment.

Due Process holds that US Citizens possess certain freedoms, such as to life and liberty. Those freedoms can only be removed by the government/state in accordance to a set procedure. The process due.

Roe v Wade claimed that Due Process means that abortion is a a freedom that cannot be removed by the government/state.

That interpretation of Due Process has always been clearly and obviously wrong. 

The entire premise of the 5th and 14th Amendments is that freedoms can be removed by the government/state. Through the process of law.

Although it is disputed in certain sections of American society. I'm of the opinion that a foetus/baby is part of a woman's body until it can survive outside of that woman's body.

So I do not consider crimes against the person laws, such as murder and battery, to be relevant.

However there are many everyday examples in US law. Where the government/state denies people the freedom to do things which only harm themselves.

The control of certain recreational drugs for example. The US famously banned the use of Alcohol before it banned the use of Heroin.

Post-pandemic the obvious example would be vaccine mandates. 

There is clear evidence that COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent the transmission or spread of the virus. So any health benefits of taking the vaccine extend only to the person taking it. Even then any health benefits are debatable.

However the government/state feels it has the right to remove people's freedom not to take the vaccine.

In the example of illegal drugs the Due Process in removing that freedom is the criminal justice system. In the example of vaccine mandates the Due Process is civil/employment law. 

That is not a discussion on the rights or wrongs of abortion. It is merely a technical point of law.

It would apply equally if the government/state wanted to remove a person's freedom to paint the outside of their house bright yellow.