The Fifth Amendment

The Text

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

What It Says

Five protections. Serious charges require a grand jury. You cannot be tried twice for the same offense. You cannot be forced to testify against yourself. You cannot lose life, liberty, or property without due process. If the government takes your property for public use it must pay you fair value.

What It Protects Against

Coerced confession and uncompensated seizure. The self-incrimination clause targets the ex officio oath, under which a court could compel a person to swear to answer any question truthfully before knowing the charge. The takings clause targets seizure of property by the state without payment.

Sourced to a ratification-era document. See Contemporaneous Defense below.

Problem Addressed

The Court of Star Chamber and English ecclesiastical courts used the ex officio oath to force self-accusation, a practice condemned in England well before the founding and cited in colonial legal argument.

Contemporaneous Defense

The self-incrimination protection descends directly from the English common law rejection of the ex officio oath, an inheritance colonial lawyers invoked explicitly. The takings clause is a different matter: Madison introduced it with almost no recorded debate, and there is little ratification-era argument to anchor an interpretation of it.