Fifth Amendment
16
6.2
- proper noun
- /ˈfɪfθ əˈmɛndmənt/
- Formal
:
Quinta Enmienda (EE. UU.)
- The Fifth Amendment itself sweeps more broadly than the due process rule against involuntary statements.
- Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause
- Fifth Amendment right
- Fifth Amendment protection
Examples
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Miranda is based exclusively on the Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Academic text (2001) -
On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your question, based on my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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Yet the same House passed the Fifth Amendment, which provided, in relevant part:
Academic text (2004) -
"When people have something and you take it away, the Fifth Amendment has one sentence that says you pay for it."
Academic text (1997) -
I must respectfully decline to answer your question, based on my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the United States...
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After claiming his rights under the Fifth Amendment, McPhaul finally said simply, "I will not."
Academic text (1997) -
Environmentalists have taken special aim at the just compensation requirement of the Fifth Amendment.
Academic text (2004) -
Under such circumstances, a person not in legal custody may have his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination violated.
Academic text (2004) -
The next case, Hampton v. Mow Sun Wong, 357, was decided under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.
Academic text (2017) -
When he was asked about his involvement, he stated that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Synonyms
1
4.7
A US legal right that protects people from forced testimony, being tried twice, and unfair legal process
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally interpretable: a B1 learner who knows 'fifth' and 'amendment' will understand it denotes the amendment that is number five (i.e., the fifth change/entry in a legal text). However, the specific legal provisions (due process, protection against self-incrimination, double jeopardy, etc.) are conventionalized, encyclopedic knowledge not derivable from the constituent words alone.
Etymology
The Fifth Amendment is the fifth change to the United States Bill of Rights, so its name simply shows its place in the list. That change includes important protections: it lets people 'remain silent' so they do not have to answer questions that could hurt them, stops them from being 'tried twice' for the same crime, and says the government must give 'just payment' if it takes private property, so today the name refers to these rights.