Here\u2019s a brief Latin class.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHabeas\u201d is the Latin verb for to hold or to have.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cCorpus\u201d is pretty obvious, because it\u2019s the \u201croot word\u201d for the English word, corpse.\u00a0\u00a0It simply means a body, but not necessarily dead.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Put them together and it means \u201cto hold (have) a body\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0In old English law, where our American system has its roots, asking for a \u201cWrit of Habeas Corpus\u201d was asking the government (the King) to explain why he is \u201cholding a body\u201d, simply, why is someone in custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is an old English right, established even before the foundation of England\u2019s \u201cliberties\u201d with the Magna Carta of 1215.\u00a0\u00a0 And it is engrained in the highest American law, the United States Constitution.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a0Article I, Section 9, Clause 2: \u201cThe Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone in America, under the Constitution, has the right to ask why they are in custody.\u00a0\u00a0 Not only do they have the right to ask for the \u201cwrit\u201d. The government is required to give a legally acceptable answer, in front of a Court of Law.\u00a0\u00a0We know this, because on every cop show on TV we hear that a suspect can only be held for so long, 48 to 72 hours, without being charged.\u00a0\u00a0The \u201cCharge\u201d is, the writ of Habeas Corpus.\u00a0\u00a0That is the government\u2019s answer for \u201cholding the body\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is made in front of a court, and the court needs to accept that there is \u201cprobable cause\u201d that the person in custody has indeed committed a crime, and can be held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone\u201d is a \u201cterm of art\u201d in the law.\u00a0\u00a0 Who is an American?\u00a0\u00a0In \u201cnormal\u201d times, everyone who is physically \u201cin\u201d the United States is granted legal rights.\u00a0\u00a0That includes \u201cborn\u201d US citizens, naturalized US Citizens, legal immigrants; green card, long and short term visa holders. And even migrants who are in the US without permission have rights.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(That phrase leads to the ethnic insult, someone who is \u201cWithout Papers\u201d, a \u201cWOP\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In American history there were two groups who did NOT originally have rights.\u00a0 \u00a0First, and most famously, were the enslaved people brought into America.\u00a0\u00a0There was a difference between those who were enslaved, owned by someone forever, and those who were indentured, or contracted to work for a term of time.\u00a0\u00a0The indentured still had some rights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enslaved had none.\u00a0\u00a0And secondly, there were the Native Americans, who were treated as \u201cforeigners\u201d (on their own land).\u00a0 \u00a0As they were born to a different \u201cnationality\u201d, a Native American tribe, they weren\u2019t considered American.\u00a0\u00a0Everyone else at least had basic rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0Among those rights are criminal rights, including the writ of habeas corpus, and right to a jury trial, and the other rights granted under the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Amendments. The Courts have even recognized those rights that weren\u2019t criminal, including the famous five freedoms of the First Amendment:\u00a0\u00a0religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition the government for redress of grievances.\u00a0\u00a0The ONLY times all of those Constitutional rights can be \u201csuspended\u201d is during War, Rebellion, Invasion or when public safety is threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was put to the test in the early years of the American Constitutional experiment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the late 1790\u2019s, there was a lot of pressure on President, John Adams.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The new United States was still tied to Great Britain economically, but allied to France politically.\u00a0 \u00a0France was in the middle of their Revolution, using much of the same rhetoric of the American rebellion.\u00a0\u00a0Adams and his Federalist Party were more aligned with Britain (New England was a center of trade). The opposition party of Thomas Jefferson, \u201cthe Democratic-Republicans\u201d were, like their leader, more aligned with France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adams and his Federalists passed the Insurrection Act in 1792, and the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798.\u00a0 \u00a0These allowed the Federal government to intervene, both in domestic insurrection, and against criticism from \u201cforeigners\u201d living in the United States. The Alien Act allowed the President to determine that an alien was acting against the US interest and could be jailed or deported, and the Sedition Act allowed the President to punish Americans criticizing the Government.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sedition Act expired in 1801, and was never tested in Court.\u00a0\u00a0The Alien Act was used to control enemy aliens during America\u2019s declared wars, the War of 1812, and World Wars I and II. \u00a0\u00a0In fact, it served as the foundation for one of the United States\u2019 most ignominious actions.\u00a0\u00a0During World War II, Americans of Japanese descent, even \u201cnatural born\u201d American citizens, were rounded up and\u00a0\u00a0\u201crelocated\u201d to internment camps guarded by the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the Insurrection Act was invoked by President Lincoln during the Civil War.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He suspended writ of habeas corpus both in the areas of rebellion, and in cases where the safety of the Union war effort was involved.\u00a0 \u00a0This included imprisoning politicians who were opposed to the Civil War, One of those was former Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Congressman led a pro-slavery, anti-war group called the \u201cCopperheads\u201d, and gave a speech\u00a0\u00a0in Mt. Vernon, Ohio in 1863, far from the battlefields.\u00a0\u00a0 The military arrested him, and tried him by military court martial.\u00a0\u00a0Vallandigham\u2019s lawyer demanded a writ of habeas corpus, to bring the trial into civilian court. But the Supreme Court ruled that the court martial was an exercise of the President\u2019s war powers (Ex parte Vallandigham<\/em>, 68 U.S. (1 Wall.) 243).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vallandigham ended up exiled in Canada, where he ran for Ohio Governor \u201cin-absentia\u201d that fall and failed.\u00a0\u00a0 He did manage to get almost 40% of the votes.\u00a0\u00a0Even then, Ohio was divided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key to these \u201cextra\u201d Presidential powers is an emergency; a war, or an insurrection.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s why President Trump has \u201cdeclared\u201d that the border crisis, the fentanyl crisis, and trade imbalance crises are all \u201cemergencies\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0That claim might grant the President authority to act under Presidential decree (executive order) rather than wait on Congress to actually debate and pass laws.\u00a0\u00a0And, President Trump now claims that it gives him the power to deport folks out of the country: without hearing, without legal representation, without even the writ of habeas corpus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s an emergency, an \u201cinvasion\u201d of Venezuelan gang members.\u00a0\u00a0So he invokes the 1798 Alien Act.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s an emergency, a glut of Chinese created fentanyl coming in.\u00a0\u00a0So he puts prohibitive tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s an emergency; folks are marching in the streets, parading and speaking out against the other emergencies.\u00a0\u00a0Will the President invoke the Insurrection Act, and send the US military to enforce his will?\u00a0\u00a0We will know soon enough, as the Trump Administration continues to refuse to explain their actions to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why are they holding those bodies, even those bodies of innocent people?\u00a0\u00a0 Key your \u201ceyes on the prize\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0If the President doesn\u2019t have to allow for the writ of habeas corpus, he can do almost anything, without check or balance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the signal: our Democracy is at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who\u2019s an American<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
John Adams<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Civil War<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Declaring Emergencies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n