Torture and the Fifth Amendment

Over the past several years, military and intelligence personnel of the United States have tortured captives, gained information from others' torture of captives, or sent captives to be tortured. Even aside from statutory law and international treaties and conventions to which the United States is party, prohibition of torture by agents of the state is implicit in the very fabric of U.S. political society as embodied in the Constitution, especially the Fifth Amendment. The rights guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment derive from English common law, with its long and venerable history. Furthermore, common-law rights and protections permeate all of Anglo-American law. The Fifth Amendment plays a central role in these legal safeguards. Historical and analytic accounts of both the Fifth Amendment and torture may shed light on recent revelations of the use of torture.