Procedural Due Process -- An Absolute Necessity

Procedural due process

This protection extends to all government proceedings that can result in an individual's deprivation, whether civil or criminal in nature, from parole violation hearings to administrative hearings regarding government benefits and entitlements to full-blown criminal trials. The article "Some Kind of Hearing" written by Judge Henry Friendly [see his legacy as described below] created a list of basic due process rights "that remains highly influential, as to both content and relative priority." These rights, which apply equally to civil due process and criminal due process, are:

1. An unbiased tribunal.
2. Notice of the proposed action and the grounds asserted for it.
3. Opportunity to present reasons why the proposed action should not be taken.
4. The right to present evidence, including the right to call witnesses.
5. The right to know opposing evidence.
6. The right to cross-examine adverse witnesses.
7. A decision based exclusively on the evidence presented.
8. Opportunity to be represented by counsel.
9. Requirement that the tribunal prepare a record of the evidence presented.
10. Requirement that the tribunal prepare written findings of fact and reasons for its decision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_Process_Clause#Procedural_due_process

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Legacy of Judge Henry Friendly

In a ceremony following Friendly's death, Chief Justice of the United States, Warren E. Burger, said, "In my 30 years on the bench, I have never known a judge more qualified to sit on the Supreme Court."

At the same ceremony, Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall called Friendly "a man of the law."

In a letter to the editor of The New York Times following Friendly's obituary, Judge Jon O. Newman called Friendly "quite simply the pre-eminent appellate judge of his era " who "authored the definitive opinions for the nation in each area of the law that he had occasion to consider."

In a statement after Friendly's death, Judge Wilfred Feinberg, the 2nd Circuit's chief judge at the time, called Friendly "one of the greatest Federal judges in the history of the Federal bench."

Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, described Friendly as "the most distinguished judge in this country during his years on the bench."

Harvard Law School has a professorship named after Friendly. Paul C. Weiler, a Canadian constitutional law scholar, held it from 1993 to 2006; William J. Stuntz, a scholar of criminal law and procedure, held it from 2006 until his death in March 2011.

The Federal Bar Council awarded Friendly a Certificate of Distinguished Judicial Service posthumously in 1986.

The American Law Institute has an award named in memory of Friendly and endowed by his former law clerks.

                            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Friendly