The vital distinction for public safety is between common criminals, who deserve due process protections, and enemy combatants at war with the U.S., wherever they are.

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On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department accused Meridian police of automatically arresting all students referred by the city's public schools and then sending them to the county juvenile justice system, "where existing due process protections are illusory and inadequate, " the federal letter says.

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But the court has now ruled these to be neither an effective nor adequate substitute for habeas corpus hearings before a civilian court, with all the normal due-process protections.

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The company has held back from a year-old lobbying effort known as Digital Due Process, aimed at reforming the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to clarify and strengthen privacy protections for users.

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At the very least, some defendants may be deprived of their fundamental right to due process of law a problem whose immediacy may be best illustrated when compared to regimes without such protections for the criminally accused (a topic further explored below).

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