Due Process for Me, Not for Thee
The Declaration of Inconvenience: When Grievance Becomes Governance
There are many in the American political class and it’s commentariat that seem to believe the Constitution is a menu from which one may order only the rights one finds palatable. Byron Donalds—whose brand of populist conservatism consists primarily of shouting, smirking, and searching for a camera—has now declared, with no trace of irony, that “due process is reserved for American citizens.”
According to Byron, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments are less constitutional protections and more a sort of national Costco loyalty rewards program: Platinum-tier Americans get the full legal suite, while foreigners, tourists, immigrants, and anyone who didn’t show up to Ellis Island with a bald eagle perched on their shoulder are left with little more than a handshake and a shove.
This is, obviously, nonsense—both legally and historically—but also a dangerous sort of nonsense. Not the charming kind, like Joe Biden misremembering which state he’s in. No, this is the kind of nonsense that, if believed, erodes our civic order. And like all dangerous nonsense, it comes with just enough chest-thumping to seduce those who think volume is a substitute for validity.
The Constitution does not grant rights. It limits power. The Founders did not write a document that told Americans what rights it had, they crafted a document that told Americans and the world that this was a system of limited government.
It’s a charter of restraint. A leash, not a gift basket.
“No Person,” Not “No Citizen”
The Fifth Amendment is unambiguous: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Not citizen. Person. A word which, believe it or not, was chosen deliberately by men who understood the difference.
Even the Fourteenth Amendment, drafted in the aftermath of the Civil War, affirms this: “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The choice of “person” was meant precisely to ensure that protections extended beyond just those who held citizenship, to include freed slaves, immigrants, and anyone else under the jurisdiction of American law.
Byron’s reading of the Constitution requires an eraser, not a highlighter.