liberty
The term “liberty” appears in the Due Process Clauses of both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. In this context, liberty means freedom from arbitrary or unreasonable restraint by the government. It encompasses not only freedom from physical restraint but also the autonomy to make personal choices and act according to one’s own will.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly defined and expanded upon the meaning of constitutional liberty:
- In Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923), the Court stated that liberty “denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”
- In Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497 (1954), the Court explained that liberty “is not confined to mere freedom from bodily restraint. Liberty under law extends to the full range of conduct which the individual is free to pursue, and it cannot be restricted except for a proper governmental objective.”
- In Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651 (1977), the Court held that liberty includes “freedom from bodily restraint and punishment” and the right to seek judicial relief from unjustified intrusions on personal security.
These decisions establish that constitutional liberty protects both physical security and the broader sphere of individual autonomy against unwarranted government interference.
[Last reviewed in October of 2025 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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