Also known as: lawful processes · due process
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A formal means by which a court exercises jurisdiction or compels action in a legal proceeding.
Federal prosecutors charged Latoya Lane with a capital offense after an information was filed directly in district court. Lane moved to dismiss because no grand jury had returned an indictment. The court held that the charging document failed to constitute lawful process and dismissed the case.
Laura Lewis and Luke Latham, an interracial couple, applied for a marriage license in a state that still enforced a statutory prohibition. The clerk refused to issue the license. A federal court later ruled that the refusal rested on unconstitutional process and ordered the license granted.
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Layla Lane, a naturalized citizen, was denied a state professional license solely because of her national origin. She sued claiming the denial rested on unlawful process. The court agreed that the state action violated the guarantee of equal protection and directed issuance of the license.
Logan Lane, convicted of a nonviolent offense, faced mandatory sterilization under state law. He challenged the statute as lacking any lawful process. The court struck down the scheme because it violated substantive due process protections for the right to procreate.
After the mother died, state officials removed Lily Lopez's child from the unmarried father without any hearing. The father petitioned for return of the child. The court held that the removal occurred through unlawful process and ordered a hearing to determine parental fitness.
Legacy Motors purchased land intending to build a commercial facility. The village enforced a zoning ordinance that barred the proposed use. Legacy Motors sued, arguing the ordinance operated as unlawful process that deprived it of property without due process. The court upheld the ordinance as a valid exercise of police power.
Lawful process requires both proper notice and an opportunity to be heard that satisfies constitutional standards. Notice alone is insufficient if the method of service or the forum's exercise of jurisdiction violates due process limits.
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Yes. When process is properly served yet the defendant fails to respond because of excusable neglect in forwarding papers, the court may relieve the party from the judgment upon a timely motion showing mistake or neglect and a meritorious defense.
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Yes. The rules permit a court to strike redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous allegations from a pleading either on motion or on its own initiative, without waiting for a party to act.
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A court may allow remote testimony for good cause in compelling circumstances when appropriate safeguards are in place. Bail restrictions preventing interstate travel can supply the required showing if the transmission preserves the ability to observe demeanor and conduct cross-examination.
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…her pregnancy. Appellant would discover this right in the concept of personal "liberty" embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause; or in personal, marital, familial, and sexual privacy said to be protected by the Bill of Rights or its penumbras, see Griswold v. Connecticut , 381 U.S. 479 (1965); Eisenstadt v.…