I was a lawyer and still cherish due process, but I doubt America feels the same | Opinion – The Courier-Journal

Among the many signs that were held at the No Kings Rally on Oct. 18, there was one that caught my eye and really resonated with me. It read, “I (heart) love Due Process.” Having practiced law for over fifteen years, I realized that of all the things I learned in law school, the love and respect of due process was at the top of the list.
It seems in our country, we’ve lost our commitment to the concepts of both due process and the rule of law. Without both, we have become a loose network of citizens who no longer care about the benefits brought to bear by these formative legal concepts.
Every time I read about the arrest of someone, either famous or infamous, I am struck by the absence of the term “alleged.” It worries me. We have stood the concept of innocent until proven guilty on its head.
Every time I read about someone who has been arrested but is held in extended pre-trial detention, I cringe. No legal judgment but incarceration that makes life difficult for the person’s family and for the person who may lose their job or rental housing. This could be me or you!
Now, I am reading about people who are being picked up on the streets because they are Brown or Black and speak with a foreign accent. They’re being held in detention without a hearing. This concerns me.
Each day, it is reported that people suspected of transporting illegal drugs are being blown up in their boats. No interrogation. No investigation. No charges filed. Simply murdered by our government forces. What happened to the concept of due process?
The United States’ system of jurisprudence is embedded in our democracy and in its insistence that a person is innocent until proven guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Due Process of Law is a concept rooted historically from the time of the Magna Carta (1215), and it is codified in the United States Constitution. The Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibit the deprivation of “life, liberty, or property” by the federal and state governments, respectively, without due process of law.
When I think about the things I love, I have come to realize that due process has found its way onto the list. Why? It keeps me and those about whom I am concerned and love safe. Safe from unreasonable searches and seizures. Safe from unprovoked intrusion of our freedom. It assures me that I will have the protection of asserting my innocence against frivolous charges and vapid innuendoes. Due process means that I live in a society that cherishes human rights and the rule of law. I don’t want to lose any of this. No one should.
It is incumbent upon all of us to insist that the guarantee of due process is not lost and swept away with many of the other principles we believe to be unassailable. It is important to voice our concern when innocent people are arrested and presumed to have violated the law. It is our duty and responsibility to protect the rule of law and the notion that everyone is entitled to be heard before being judged. With no assurance of due process of law, any one of us is vulnerable not only when we step outside of our homes but in our homes as well. This is not how The United States of America is meant to be. Not when it was founded and not now. I love the due process of law, and I am not ready to break up with it.
Rev. Dean Bucalos is a retired lawyer and a minister in the Christian church, Disciples of Christ. He previously served as executive director of Mission Behind Bars and Beyond, an ecumenical ministry that works with citizens returning to our community after incarceration.

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