CONFIDENTIAL
UNITED STATES
Report by HM Embassy, Washington
Right No.
(i)
Imprisonment without trial does not exist in the United States. The Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution states that "no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous, crime, unless on a present- ment 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".
(ii)
"Cruel and unusual punishment" is forbidden by the Eighth Amendment. Torture is not practised.
(iii)
(iv)
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Slavery is forbidden by the Thirteenth Amendment of 18 December 1865, which forbids "slavery" or "involuntary servitude" except as a punishment for crime for which the guilty has been duly convicted, ie prison labour is legal.
The First Amendment of the Constitution forbids Congress to pass laws affecting freedom of religion or "abridging the freedom of speech or of the press", or "the right of people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances". The press and media are of course subject to the laws of libel and defamation of character, but these tend to be interpreted less strictly than in the United Kingdom. The 1974 Amendment to the 1966 Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 provide for public access to government information and protection for citizens from invasions of privacy by the Federal Government.
/(v) Independence
CONFIDENTIAL
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