July 4, 2025 • 11 mins
Habeas corpus is a centuries-old legal concept that basically means that the government has to have a valid legal reason if it's going to detain you. Learn why habeas corpus is so important -- and when it's been suspended in the U.S. -- in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/habeas-corpus-important.htm
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Bogelbaum here. For almost a thousand years, and in many societies,
there's been a legal concept that a person cannot be
imprisoned by their government unless that government has a valid
and lawful reason for doing so. This is sometimes called
(00:25):
habeas corpus, which is Latin for you have the body,
which is basically a way of saying, Okay, you've got
a prisoner in custody, bring that person before a judge
so that we can figure out whether they're being imprisoned
legally or not. In countries around the world, there are
laws on the books that allow a prisoner to petition
(00:45):
for habeas corpus relief, meaning that they can ask to
have a judge look at whether it's legal that they've
been detained. Habeas corpus doesn't have anything to do with
the prisoner's guilt or innocence. It's just a matter of
does the government have the right to detain me. It's
a good question to be able to ask in terms
(01:06):
of having human rights. So today let's talk about the
history of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus was first clearly laid
out in the year twelve fifteen in the Magna Carta,
an English charter limiting the monarchy's power and establishing individual
freedoms for the upper class. Anyway, it said in its
(01:29):
thirty ninth clause is something to the extent of no
man shall be arrested or imprisoned, except by the lawful
judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.
The Magna Carto was based on prior documents, but has
often been cited as a foundation or inspiration for all
of democratic law, and this clause in particular is pointed
(01:51):
to as the basis for the system of trial by jury.
Habeas corpus protections started really seeing use in the sixteen
hundreds in England, both as a way to limit the
monarchy's power to imprison people and to allow the monarchy
to check other authorities power to imprison people. This was
pertinent at the time, perhaps especially due to concerns about
(02:12):
religious persecution. Parliament wrote the Habeas Corpus Act into law
in sixteen seventy nine. A century later, the framers of
the Constitution of the United States thought that it was
important enough to include a mention in the Bill of rights.
But Article one, Section nine, and Congress authorized federal courts
to grant relief through it right off the bat in
(02:33):
seventeen eighty nine when they began laying out the powers
of the courts. So, habeas corpus is old, Does that
mean that it's antiquated? The short answer is unequivocally no.
Without it, no one is truly free, because anyone could
be removed from their life and imprisoned indefinitely for no
(02:55):
reason at all, with no access to the due process
of a fair trial. In a decision handed down by
the Supreme Court in nineteen ninety two, the justices substantiated
the importance of habeas corpus, calling it quote the fundamental
instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.
(03:18):
So how exactly does habeas corpus support the dignity of
the legal process? Habeas corpus is part of a twofold process.
In a petition for habeas corpus, a prisoner or another
interested party raises doubts about the legality of their imprisonment.
If the petition is successful in demonstrating that the imprisonment
(03:40):
justifies an examination, a judge will issue a writ of
habeas corpus. This is the order for the prisoner to
be brought to court. At that time, the judge examines
the issue again. The writ of habeas corpus isn't meant
to determine whether the detainee is guilty of the crime
that they're accused of. It's a call for examination of
(04:00):
the legality of their imprisonment, was the due process of
law followed. A due process is a group of constitutionally
guaranteed rights that in the US includes a fair and
speedy trial, access to legal counsel, freedom from unlawful search
and seizure, a trial by a jury of peers, and
an appearance before one's accusers. But even a constitutional guarantee
(04:26):
carries little weight if there's no mechanism in place to
grant recourse to the person on the receiving end of
that guarantee. Habeas corpus ensures that the right to due
process is supported by action. Since its inception, Congress has
expanded federal court's power to provide habeas relief to state
prisoners too, if their imprisonment is in violation of federal law,
(04:49):
including civil rights. Sometimes habeas corpus is used as a
last ditch strategic tool to obtain freedom for a defendant
in a criminal case, but only after the appeals process
has been exhausted. A court reviewing a habeas plea can
consider new evidence, whereas in an appeal no new evidence
can be submitted. Once an issue raised in a habeas
(05:12):
plea has been decided, however, it cannot be debated again
in regard to the same case. Habeas corpus is so
important that several cases over the past one hundred years
or so have confirmed the right of this due process
to all people physically present in the United States or
detained elsewhere by the government of the United States, regardless
(05:33):
of that person's citizenship. The US Constitution provides for suspension
of habeas corpus in only extreme and express cases, but
as with any law, exactly when and what these cases
are is subject to interpretation. The framers of the Constitution
recognized that there are situations where revoking habeas corpus may
(05:57):
be necessary for the common good. Article one, section nine
states that habeas corpus quote shall not be suspended unless
when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety
may require it. The such instances have emerged throughout our history.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus
(06:20):
and a few specific situations starting in eighteen sixty one,
which may have saved lives by allowing the Northern military
to detain suspected spies, but was also technically legal until
Congress approved the suspension in eighteen sixty three retroactively and
for the duration of the war. Only Congress has the
(06:41):
legal ability to suspend habeas corpus. They did so briefly
during reconstruction in the South to prevent violence and intimidation
from white supremacist groups like the KKK in parts of
South Carolina. Another brief suspension of habeas corpus was put
in place in the then territory of the Philippines by
the American military in nineteen oh five during political unrest,
(07:06):
but there was a larger instance after Japan bombed Pearl
Harbor in nineteen forty one. More than one hundred and
twenty thousand Japanese Americans were detained without recourse in Hawaii
under martial law and along the west coast of the
mainland by presidential decree. The majority were American born or
naturalized citizens. The Department of Justice voiced ethical and constitutional objections,
(07:31):
so the decree Executive Order in ninety sixty six authorized
the military to exclude civilians from military areas. They divided
the West Coast into military zones, evacuated Japanese Americans living there,
and detained them in internment camps indefinitely with no due process.
It was because of a writ of habeas corpus that
(07:52):
the exclusion order was removed in late nineteen forty four,
and the camps were shut down entirely by nineteen forty six.
The twenty first century has seen suspensions of habeas corpus
as well. After the attacks on September eleventh of two
thousand and one, President George W. Bush and Congress concluded
that conditions warranted repealing the right to habeas corpus. The
(08:15):
Detainee Treatment Act of two thousand and five and the
Military Commissions Act of two thousand and six removed any
court's ability to hear a petition of habeas corpus for
anyone deemed an enemy combatant by the US government, and
they did so retroactively, relating to the detention of suspects
following September eleventh in places like Guantanamo Bay. This was
(08:37):
reversed by the Supreme Court in two thousand and eight. Then,
in early twenty twenty five, the Trump administration began enacting
mass arrest and detention of many different refugees, temporary migrants,
and intendedly permanent immigrants living in the US in preparation
for deporting them. The administration argued that the US is
(09:00):
being invaded by such people and that many of them
have violent criminal intent. As of June fifteenth of this year,
over fifty six thousand people were actively being detained by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Of those, seventy two
percent had no criminal record at all, and only seven
(09:22):
percent had any record of violence or property damage. Several
people have successfully applied for habeas relief and have been released,
and Supreme Court ruled in April that immigrants must be
given enough notice of deportation to begin due process and
petition for habeas relief if they choose. However, constitutional experts
(09:43):
and human rights organizations have raised concerns that not all
detainees understand or are able to access their right to
due process because of the speed and scale of the detentions. Furthermore,
officials in the administration have told the press that their
considering suspended ding Habeas corpus entirely. This is a potential
(10:05):
problem for everyone in America because without recourse against false
or illegal imprisonment, you don't have the due process to
prove that you haven't committed a crime, or that you
are a citizen, or that you otherwise deserve to go free.
If you can be imprisoned without due process, the other
(10:26):
rights granted to people in America go out the window.
So even if habeas corpus you have the body sounds archaic,
it's actually quite important, perhaps especially today. Today's episode is
based on the article why is habeas corpus important? On
(10:47):
how stuffworks dot com written by Josh Clark. Brain Stuff
is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks
dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more
podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or whereever you listen to your favorite shows. M
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren
Bogelbaum here. For almost a thousand years, and in many societies,
there's been a legal concept that a person cannot be
imprisoned by their government unless that government has a valid
and lawful reason for doing so. This is sometimes called
(00:25):
habeas corpus, which is Latin for you have the body,
which is basically a way of saying, Okay, you've got
a prisoner in custody, bring that person before a judge
so that we can figure out whether they're being imprisoned
legally or not. In countries around the world, there are
laws on the books that allow a prisoner to petition
(00:45):
for habeas corpus relief, meaning that they can ask to
have a judge look at whether it's legal that they've
been detained. Habeas corpus doesn't have anything to do with
the prisoner's guilt or innocence. It's just a matter of
does the government have the right to detain me. It's
a good question to be able to ask in terms
(01:06):
of having human rights. So today let's talk about the
history of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus was first clearly laid
out in the year twelve fifteen in the Magna Carta,
an English charter limiting the monarchy's power and establishing individual
freedoms for the upper class. Anyway, it said in its
(01:29):
thirty ninth clause is something to the extent of no
man shall be arrested or imprisoned, except by the lawful
judgment of his peers and by the law of the land.
The Magna Carto was based on prior documents, but has
often been cited as a foundation or inspiration for all
of democratic law, and this clause in particular is pointed
(01:51):
to as the basis for the system of trial by jury.
Habeas corpus protections started really seeing use in the sixteen
hundreds in England, both as a way to limit the
monarchy's power to imprison people and to allow the monarchy
to check other authorities power to imprison people. This was
pertinent at the time, perhaps especially due to concerns about
(02:12):
religious persecution. Parliament wrote the Habeas Corpus Act into law
in sixteen seventy nine. A century later, the framers of
the Constitution of the United States thought that it was
important enough to include a mention in the Bill of rights.
But Article one, Section nine, and Congress authorized federal courts
to grant relief through it right off the bat in
(02:33):
seventeen eighty nine when they began laying out the powers
of the courts. So, habeas corpus is old, Does that
mean that it's antiquated? The short answer is unequivocally no.
Without it, no one is truly free, because anyone could
be removed from their life and imprisoned indefinitely for no
(02:55):
reason at all, with no access to the due process
of a fair trial. In a decision handed down by
the Supreme Court in nineteen ninety two, the justices substantiated
the importance of habeas corpus, calling it quote the fundamental
instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.
(03:18):
So how exactly does habeas corpus support the dignity of
the legal process? Habeas corpus is part of a twofold process.
In a petition for habeas corpus, a prisoner or another
interested party raises doubts about the legality of their imprisonment.
If the petition is successful in demonstrating that the imprisonment
(03:40):
justifies an examination, a judge will issue a writ of
habeas corpus. This is the order for the prisoner to
be brought to court. At that time, the judge examines
the issue again. The writ of habeas corpus isn't meant
to determine whether the detainee is guilty of the crime
that they're accused of. It's a call for examination of
(04:00):
the legality of their imprisonment, was the due process of
law followed. A due process is a group of constitutionally
guaranteed rights that in the US includes a fair and
speedy trial, access to legal counsel, freedom from unlawful search
and seizure, a trial by a jury of peers, and
an appearance before one's accusers. But even a constitutional guarantee
(04:26):
carries little weight if there's no mechanism in place to
grant recourse to the person on the receiving end of
that guarantee. Habeas corpus ensures that the right to due
process is supported by action. Since its inception, Congress has
expanded federal court's power to provide habeas relief to state
prisoners too, if their imprisonment is in violation of federal law,
(04:49):
including civil rights. Sometimes habeas corpus is used as a
last ditch strategic tool to obtain freedom for a defendant
in a criminal case, but only after the appeals process
has been exhausted. A court reviewing a habeas plea can
consider new evidence, whereas in an appeal no new evidence
can be submitted. Once an issue raised in a habeas
(05:12):
plea has been decided, however, it cannot be debated again
in regard to the same case. Habeas corpus is so
important that several cases over the past one hundred years
or so have confirmed the right of this due process
to all people physically present in the United States or
detained elsewhere by the government of the United States, regardless
(05:33):
of that person's citizenship. The US Constitution provides for suspension
of habeas corpus in only extreme and express cases, but
as with any law, exactly when and what these cases
are is subject to interpretation. The framers of the Constitution
recognized that there are situations where revoking habeas corpus may
(05:57):
be necessary for the common good. Article one, section nine
states that habeas corpus quote shall not be suspended unless
when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety
may require it. The such instances have emerged throughout our history.
During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus
(06:20):
and a few specific situations starting in eighteen sixty one,
which may have saved lives by allowing the Northern military
to detain suspected spies, but was also technically legal until
Congress approved the suspension in eighteen sixty three retroactively and
for the duration of the war. Only Congress has the
(06:41):
legal ability to suspend habeas corpus. They did so briefly
during reconstruction in the South to prevent violence and intimidation
from white supremacist groups like the KKK in parts of
South Carolina. Another brief suspension of habeas corpus was put
in place in the then territory of the Philippines by
the American military in nineteen oh five during political unrest,
(07:06):
but there was a larger instance after Japan bombed Pearl
Harbor in nineteen forty one. More than one hundred and
twenty thousand Japanese Americans were detained without recourse in Hawaii
under martial law and along the west coast of the
mainland by presidential decree. The majority were American born or
naturalized citizens. The Department of Justice voiced ethical and constitutional objections,
(07:31):
so the decree Executive Order in ninety sixty six authorized
the military to exclude civilians from military areas. They divided
the West Coast into military zones, evacuated Japanese Americans living there,
and detained them in internment camps indefinitely with no due process.
It was because of a writ of habeas corpus that
(07:52):
the exclusion order was removed in late nineteen forty four,
and the camps were shut down entirely by nineteen forty six.
The twenty first century has seen suspensions of habeas corpus
as well. After the attacks on September eleventh of two
thousand and one, President George W. Bush and Congress concluded
that conditions warranted repealing the right to habeas corpus. The
(08:15):
Detainee Treatment Act of two thousand and five and the
Military Commissions Act of two thousand and six removed any
court's ability to hear a petition of habeas corpus for
anyone deemed an enemy combatant by the US government, and
they did so retroactively, relating to the detention of suspects
following September eleventh in places like Guantanamo Bay. This was
(08:37):
reversed by the Supreme Court in two thousand and eight. Then,
in early twenty twenty five, the Trump administration began enacting
mass arrest and detention of many different refugees, temporary migrants,
and intendedly permanent immigrants living in the US in preparation
for deporting them. The administration argued that the US is
(09:00):
being invaded by such people and that many of them
have violent criminal intent. As of June fifteenth of this year,
over fifty six thousand people were actively being detained by
Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Of those, seventy two
percent had no criminal record at all, and only seven
(09:22):
percent had any record of violence or property damage. Several
people have successfully applied for habeas relief and have been released,
and Supreme Court ruled in April that immigrants must be
given enough notice of deportation to begin due process and
petition for habeas relief if they choose. However, constitutional experts
(09:43):
and human rights organizations have raised concerns that not all
detainees understand or are able to access their right to
due process because of the speed and scale of the detentions. Furthermore,
officials in the administration have told the press that their
considering suspended ding Habeas corpus entirely. This is a potential
(10:05):
problem for everyone in America because without recourse against false
or illegal imprisonment, you don't have the due process to
prove that you haven't committed a crime, or that you
are a citizen, or that you otherwise deserve to go free.
If you can be imprisoned without due process, the other
(10:26):
rights granted to people in America go out the window.
So even if habeas corpus you have the body sounds archaic,
it's actually quite important, perhaps especially today. Today's episode is
based on the article why is habeas corpus important? On
(10:47):
how stuffworks dot com written by Josh Clark. Brain Stuff
is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks
dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more
podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or whereever you listen to your favorite shows. M
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Ben Bowlin
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