Liberty

The MBE tells you which due process you’re in by the complaint: a plaintiff angry about how they were treated (no notice, no hearing) is procedural; one arguing the government cannot do this at all is substantive. The classic trap is a fact pattern that looks procedural — a license yanked, a benefit cut — where the call is really what process, not whether. Watch the threshold: procedural due process needs state action depriving life, liberty, or property, and “property” requires a legitimate entitlement (a statute or rule), not a unilateral hope (Board of Regents v. Roth). Negligent deprivations don’t trigger it (Daniels v. Williams).

Don’t conflate liberty with Equal Protection: due process attacks a burden on everyone, while equal protection attacks unequal treatment between groups — one statute can raise both, and Obergefell rests on both rails at once. Also, most economic and social legislation gets only rational basis under substantive due process; reserve strict scrutiny for fundamental rights (largely the unenumerated ones — privacy, marriage, travel). Memory hook: procedure = “how,” substance = “whether.”