The Fifth Amendment

The Fifth Amendment bundles several protections. Serious federal crimes must be charged by a grand jury indictment, no one may be tried twice for the same offense, no one may be compelled in a criminal case to be a witness against himself, no one may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and private property may not be taken for public use without just compensation. Most of these rights now also bind the states, but the grand jury requirement does not, and about half the states charge felonies without one.

The privilege against self-incrimination is the best known. In Miranda v. Arizona in 1966, the Supreme Court required police to warn suspects in custody of their right to remain silent and to have a lawyer before questioning. Witnesses may also invoke the privilege before Congress, a practice known as pleading the Fifth, and Congress can compel testimony only by granting immunity. The due process clause requires fair procedures in federal actions and, in the Court's reading, contains an equal protection guarantee that applies to the federal government.

The takings clause governs eminent domain, the power to take private land for roads, military bases, and other public uses. In Kelo v. City of New London in 2005, the Court allowed a city to take homes for a private economic development project, prompting more than forty states to restrict such takings. Regulations that go too far can also count as takings requiring compensation. Debates continue over the scope of Miranda, the reach of takings law, and whether separate state and federal prosecutions for the same conduct, which the Court upheld in 2019, are consistent with double jeopardy protection.