Due Process

Balzac v. Porto Rico was a U.S. Supreme Court case that held that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial does not apply in unincorporated U.S. territories. Jesús M. Balzac, a newspaper editor, was convicted of criminal libel and denied a jury trial under local law despite being a U.S. citizen…

American Baptist Churches v. Thornburgh was a landmark class-action lawsuit filed by a coalition of religious refugee-assistance organizations and Salvadoran and Guatemalan asylum seekers against the government. The plaintiffs alleged that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)…

Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca clarified the burden of proof for asylum applicants under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The Supreme Court held that to qualify for asylum under § 208(a) of the INA, an alien need only demonstrate a well‑founded fear of…

In Miranda v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court held that statements obtained during a police interrogation are inadmissible at trial unless the suspect first receives procedural warnings. This became known as the “Miranda warnings.” The Court based its ruling on the Fifth Amendment’s protection…

The case People v. Zamora arose from the Sleepy Lagoon murder in which José Gallardo Díaz was found fatally injured near a Los Angeles-area reservoir. Mexican‑American youths, including Gus Zamora, were arrested en masse and tried by a judge who barred many defense requests and seated an all‑white…