Decades of teaching college students about American jurisprudence have convinced me it takes at least 30 minutes of class time to teach students what “due process of law” is.

The concept is not as well-known as more familiar rights and freedoms such as “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press.”

But, as I shall demonstrate, it is an essential part of American freedom and democracy. “Pay attention, class!”

Due process of law is the series of required steps that must be taken to accuse and convict a person of committing a crime. If the appropriate steps are not taken at each point in the judicial process, the conviction for the crime can be reversed and the accused set free.

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Thus, due process includes:

1. Being informed of one’s right to counsel at the time of arrest.
2. Being brought before a judge within 24 hours of arrest.
3. Being indicted by a grand jury for trial based on the facts of the case.
4. Being tried by a jury of one’s peers.
5. If convicted, not subjected to cruel or unusual punishments.
6. Given the right to appeal your conviction to a higher court.
7. Having your conviction reviewed by the governor or other executive official for possible pardon or a sentence reduction.

Got all that!

To make the matter even more complicated, the exact rules of due process of law vary from state to state and from city to city. Due process is different in U.S. courts from state and city courts.

But the underlying principle is always the same. Before the accused is convicted and imprisoned or executed for a crime, there are required steps and rules which prosecutors and judges must follow to reach a legitimate conviction.

One of the effects of due process of law is, occasionally, the court will spend as much time arguing over whether the accused received due process of law as it will over the facts of the case and the reasons for conviction.

In fact, criminal lawyers are most likely to raise due process of law issues when the facts of the actual criminal case are solidly stacked against their client.

Due process of law is required in virtually every criminal case, no matter how slight, and to every individual brought into court, no matter what their personal status may be.

So even if a person is scary or threatening looking, or they have been accused of being a member of a notorious gang, or they are not U.S. citizens, or they were seen hanging out in a crime ridden section of town, they are still protected by due process of law and must receive the full benefits of the concept.

Judges and legislatures and courts continue to expand and refine what is included in the concept of due process of law.

A recent example was in the 1960s, when accused persons were guaranteed the advice of a lawyer at the moment of arrest, prior to questioning by the police or other arresting officers.

At the same time, if the arrested person could not afford a lawyer, the arresting authority would have to provide one at government expense.

There is no question President Donald Trump has shown no respect for the legal concept of due process of law.

On the thinnest of accusations, persons have been arrested, hustled out of the country, and incarcerated in foreign nations without getting anywhere near a courtroom, a trial, or any of the other guarantees of due process of law.

It is astonishing this is happening in a nation with such a long history of deep respect for the kind of rights and privileges and protections enshrined in the concept of due process of law.

All persons apprehended in the United States and sent to incarceration in either the United States or a foreign nation without a criminal trial and conviction, should be immediately released from prison and returned safely to their point of origin in the United States.

All of them.

Bob Loevy was a longtime political science professor at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. He regularly writes about Colorado and politics.