What is "Clause 40"?
The Constitution is a spare document. If created in our modern era, it would only take up approximately 15 pages of text. One very powerful principle underlies the document's solemn aspirations to establish justice and to secure the blessings of liberty. That principle is called due process.
Specifically, the Fifth Amendment mandates that the federal government not deprive anyone of "life, liberty or property without due process of law" and the 14th Amendment requires the same of state governments. Specific procedural due process rights are enumerated in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments.
The promise of due process that America's legal system is based upon was first enshrined in document form in the 13th Century in Clauses 39 and 40 of Magna Carta:
Clause 39: No persons shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of their rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of their standing in any way, nor will we proceed with force against them, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of their equals or by the law of the land.
Clause 40: To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.
These promises are as relevant today as they ever were--particularly in America's criminal legal system. That's why the name of this organization carries the name of one of these original guarantees.
We are a tax exempt nonprofit 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization whose mission is to honor, preserve, and promote the due process rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution through public education, events, research, litigation, and more.