The Fifth Amendment
The Fifth Amendment guarantees several distinct protections for the accused, including grand jury indictment, freedom from double jeopardy, the right against self-incrimination, due process of law, and just compensation when private property is taken for public use.
Ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, the Fifth Amendment packs more substantive protections into a single sentence than any other provision of the Constitution. It guarantees indictment by a grand jury for serious federal crimes. It forbids double jeopardy, the practice of trying a person twice for the same offense. It protects against self-incrimination, the right not to be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." It contains the federal Due Process Clause. And it requires just compensation when private property is taken for public use, the Takings Clause.
The Self-Incrimination Clause has produced some of the most familiar phrases in American law. Pleading the Fifth, taking the Fifth, the Miranda warning that police read to suspects before custodial interrogation, all derive from this single clause. The Supreme Court in Miranda v. Arizona in 1966 held that custodial interrogation is inherently coercive and that suspects must be informed of their rights to silence and counsel before questioning. The decision was controversial when issued and has been narrowed in subsequent cases, but its core requirement remains in force.
The Takings Clause has been at the center of equally significant debates. The Court has long held that the government may take private property for public use only by paying just compensation, but the boundary of "public use" has shifted. In Kelo v. City of New London in 2005, the Court held that economic development qualifies as a public use, permitting cities to take homes by eminent domain and transfer them to private developers. The decision drew widespread criticism and prompted reform legislation in more than forty states. The Double Jeopardy Clause prevents the federal government from prosecuting a defendant twice for the same offense, though under the dual sovereignty doctrine the same conduct may be prosecuted separately by federal and state authorities. Each clause of the amendment continues to do significant work in modern criminal and constitutional law.