Due Process

: a course of formal proceedings (as legal proceedings) carried out regularly and in accordance with established rules and principles —called also procedural due process

1. 
   
2. 
   :  a judicial requirement that enacted laws may not contain provisions that result in the unfair, arbitrary, or unreasonable treatment of an individual —called also substantive due process

We are losing our rights.  The best example is in current events, Barack Obama's over-reach in using executive orders to establish the gun control he cannot get using the legislative process.  Obama sounds reasonable.  He says he wants to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill or known terror suspects.  So do I.

But to understand the abuse Obama is now permitting, consider this.  

First, the right to bear arms is an enumerated constitutional right, specifically written into the 2nd amendment, and has been reviewed by the supreme court as applying to individual gun ownership.  It is not an un-enumerated right, such as the right to choose, or the right to privacy which are  implied by enumerated rights.  

Now, if I had a nephew-in-law who is completely nuts, (and I do), I could call the FBI and report that he should not be allowed to buy a gun.  That would be enough to put his name on a list and effectively strip him of his 2nd amendment constitutional rights.  This would be done without the due process normally required to apply a restriction or penalty.

No-fly lists are more egregious.  While I might have good reason to report my nephew-in-law to authorities, any name on a no-fly list is placed there arbitrarily by a government bureaucrat checking a box. The late senator Ted Kennedy was repeatedly added to no-fly lists due to his name connected to a known terrorist.  Since there is no legal process required to add a name to the list, a bureaucrat would effectively be empowered to restrict a constitution right to any citizen without due process.  This is a process ripe for abuse just as was exposed in the IRS practice of rejecting conservative groups for 401c status.

With the executive order, Obama has crossed another line by authorizing unfair, arbitrary, or unreasonable treatment of citizens without due process.  It won't stand, but will sound like he is doing something important.