5 Cite as: 576 U. S. ____ (2015)
T
HOMAS, J., dissenting
of every Englishman.” 1 Blackstone 123. And he formu-
lated those absolute rights as “the right of personal secu-
rity,” which included the right to life; “the right of personal
liberty”; and “the right of private property.” Id., at 125.
He defined “the right of personal liberty” as “the power of
loco-motion, of changing situation, or removing one’s
person to whatsoever place one’s own inclination may
direct; without imprisonment or restraint, unless by due
course of law.” Id., at 125, 130.
2
The Framers drew heavily upon Blackstone’s formula-
tion, adopting provisions in early State Constitutions that
replicated Magna Carta’s language, but were modified to
refer specifically to “life, liberty, or property.”
3
State
——————
2
The seeds of this articulation can also be found in Henry Care’s
influential treatise, English Liberties. First published in America in
1721, it described the “three things, which the Law of England . . .
principally regards and taketh Care of,” as “Life, Liberty and Estate,”
and described habeas corpus as the means by which one could procure
one’s “Liberty” from imprisonment. The Habeas Corpus Act, comment.,
in English Liberties, or the Free-born Subject’s Inheritance 185 (H.
Care comp. 5th ed. 1721). Though he used the word “Liberties” by itself
more broadly, see, e.g., id., at 7, 34, 56, 58, 60, he used “Liberty” in a
narrow sense when placed alongside the words “Life” or “Estate,” see,
e.g., id., at 185, 200.
3
Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina adopted the phrase
“life, liberty, or property” in provisions otherwise tracking Magna
Carta: “That no freeman ought to be taken, or imprisoned, or disseized
of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any
manner destroyed, or deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by
the judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.” Md. Const.,
Declaration of Rights, Art. XXI (1776), in 3 Federal and State Constitu-
tions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws 1688 (F. Thorpe ed.
1909); see also S. C. Const., Art. XLI (1778), in 6 id., at 3257; N. C.
Const., Declaration of Rights, Art. XII (1776), in 5 id., at 2788. Massa-
chusetts and New Hampshire did the same, albeit with some altera-
tions to Magna Carta’s framework: “[N]o subject shall be arrested,
imprisoned, despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or
privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, or deprived of his
life, liberty, or estate, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the
land.” Mass. Const., pt. I, Art. XII (1780), in 3 id., at 1891; see also