WEBVTT - What Does Habeas Corpus Mean? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.920 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:13.920 Bogelbaum here. For almost a thousand years, and in many societies, 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.079 there's been a legal concept that a person cannot be 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.759 imprisoned by their government unless that government has a valid 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:25.280 and lawful reason for doing so. This is sometimes called 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.040 habeas corpus, which is Latin for you have the body, 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:33.120 which is basically a way of saying, Okay, you've got 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.120 a prisoner in custody, bring that person before a judge 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.440 so that we can figure out whether they're being imprisoned 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:43.040 legally or not. In countries around the world, there are 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.519 laws on the books that allow a prisoner to petition 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.760 for habeas corpus relief, meaning that they can ask to 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:50.840 have a judge look at whether it's legal that they've 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.560 been detained. Habeas corpus doesn't have anything to do with 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.920 the prisoner's guilt or innocence. It's just a matter of 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:03.840 does the government have the right to detain me. It's 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.520 a good question to be able to ask in terms 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:10.960 of having human rights. So today let's talk about the 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:17.319 history of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus was first clearly laid 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.080 out in the year twelve fifteen in the Magna Carta, 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:24.720 an English charter limiting the monarchy's power and establishing individual 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.080 freedoms for the upper class. Anyway, it said in its 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.640 thirty ninth clause is something to the extent of no 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:35.200 man shall be arrested or imprisoned, except by the lawful 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:40.320 judgment of his peers and by the law of the land. 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.600 The Magna Carto was based on prior documents, but has 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.200 often been cited as a foundation or inspiration for all 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:51.040 of democratic law, and this clause in particular is pointed 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.840 to as the basis for the system of trial by jury. 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:59.040 Habeas corpus protections started really seeing use in the sixteen 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.720 hundreds in England, both as a way to limit the 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.320 monarchy's power to imprison people and to allow the monarchy 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.320 to check other authorities power to imprison people. This was 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.560 pertinent at the time, perhaps especially due to concerns about 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:17.000 religious persecution. Parliament wrote the Habeas Corpus Act into law 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:22.720 in sixteen seventy nine. A century later, the framers of 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:24.959 the Constitution of the United States thought that it was 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.400 important enough to include a mention in the Bill of rights. 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.240 But Article one, Section nine, and Congress authorized federal courts 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.240 to grant relief through it right off the bat in 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.160 seventeen eighty nine when they began laying out the powers 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:42.600 of the courts. So, habeas corpus is old, Does that 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:47.720 mean that it's antiquated? The short answer is unequivocally no. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:52.720 Without it, no one is truly free, because anyone could 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.760 be removed from their life and imprisoned indefinitely for no 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.760 reason at all, with no access to the due process 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.440 of a fair trial. In a decision handed down by 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:06.320 the Supreme Court in nineteen ninety two, the justices substantiated 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:10.400 the importance of habeas corpus, calling it quote the fundamental 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:15.440 instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action. 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.480 So how exactly does habeas corpus support the dignity of 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:27.840 the legal process? Habeas corpus is part of a twofold process. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.520 In a petition for habeas corpus, a prisoner or another 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.680 interested party raises doubts about the legality of their imprisonment. 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.680 If the petition is successful in demonstrating that the imprisonment 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.360 justifies an examination, a judge will issue a writ of 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.000 habeas corpus. This is the order for the prisoner to 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.520 be brought to court. At that time, the judge examines 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.160 the issue again. The writ of habeas corpus isn't meant 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.840 to determine whether the detainee is guilty of the crime 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.840 that they're accused of. It's a call for examination of 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.560 the legality of their imprisonment, was the due process of 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:10.000 law followed. A due process is a group of constitutionally 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.320 guaranteed rights that in the US includes a fair and 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.360 speedy trial, access to legal counsel, freedom from unlawful search 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.279 and seizure, a trial by a jury of peers, and 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:26.120 an appearance before one's accusers. But even a constitutional guarantee 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.880 carries little weight if there's no mechanism in place to 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.479 grant recourse to the person on the receiving end of 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.480 that guarantee. Habeas corpus ensures that the right to due 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:42.240 process is supported by action. Since its inception, Congress has 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.720 expanded federal court's power to provide habeas relief to state 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.520 prisoners too, if their imprisonment is in violation of federal law, 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:54.960 including civil rights. Sometimes habeas corpus is used as a 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.000 last ditch strategic tool to obtain freedom for a defendant 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.360 in a criminal case, but only after the appeals process 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:05.280 has been exhausted. A court reviewing a habeas plea can 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.839 consider new evidence, whereas in an appeal no new evidence 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.159 can be submitted. Once an issue raised in a habeas 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.279 plea has been decided, however, it cannot be debated again 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:20.960 in regard to the same case. Habeas corpus is so 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.120 important that several cases over the past one hundred years 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.840 or so have confirmed the right of this due process 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.279 to all people physically present in the United States or 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.479 detained elsewhere by the government of the United States, regardless 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:39.880 of that person's citizenship. The US Constitution provides for suspension 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:44.520 of habeas corpus in only extreme and express cases, but 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.280 as with any law, exactly when and what these cases 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:53.359 are is subject to interpretation. The framers of the Constitution 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.320 recognized that there are situations where revoking habeas corpus may 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:01.240 be necessary for the common good. Article one, section nine 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.960 states that habeas corpus quote shall not be suspended unless 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.000 when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:15.479 may require it. The such instances have emerged throughout our history. 0:06:16.720 --> 0:06:20.239 During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.400 and a few specific situations starting in eighteen sixty one, 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:27.520 which may have saved lives by allowing the Northern military 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:32.159 to detain suspected spies, but was also technically legal until 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:37.000 Congress approved the suspension in eighteen sixty three retroactively and 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.000 for the duration of the war. Only Congress has the 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:47.360 legal ability to suspend habeas corpus. They did so briefly 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.680 during reconstruction in the South to prevent violence and intimidation 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:53.680 from white supremacist groups like the KKK in parts of 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.240 South Carolina. Another brief suspension of habeas corpus was put 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.800 in place in the then territory of the Philippines by 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.200 the American military in nineteen oh five during political unrest, 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:11.000 but there was a larger instance after Japan bombed Pearl 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.000 Harbor in nineteen forty one. More than one hundred and 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:18.240 twenty thousand Japanese Americans were detained without recourse in Hawaii 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.640 under martial law and along the west coast of the 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:25.560 mainland by presidential decree. The majority were American born or 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:31.360 naturalized citizens. The Department of Justice voiced ethical and constitutional objections, 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.680 so the decree Executive Order in ninety sixty six authorized 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:40.800 the military to exclude civilians from military areas. They divided 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:45.080 the West Coast into military zones, evacuated Japanese Americans living there, 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:49.560 and detained them in internment camps indefinitely with no due process. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.720 It was because of a writ of habeas corpus that 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.560 the exclusion order was removed in late nineteen forty four, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.040 and the camps were shut down entirely by nineteen forty six. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.600 The twenty first century has seen suspensions of habeas corpus 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.920 as well. After the attacks on September eleventh of two 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.560 thousand and one, President George W. Bush and Congress concluded 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:15.920 that conditions warranted repealing the right to habeas corpus. The 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:18.720 Detainee Treatment Act of two thousand and five and the 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.000 Military Commissions Act of two thousand and six removed any 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.120 court's ability to hear a petition of habeas corpus for 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:29.240 anyone deemed an enemy combatant by the US government, and 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.880 they did so retroactively, relating to the detention of suspects 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.600 following September eleventh in places like Guantanamo Bay. This was 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:43.319 reversed by the Supreme Court in two thousand and eight. Then, 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:47.000 in early twenty twenty five, the Trump administration began enacting 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:51.880 mass arrest and detention of many different refugees, temporary migrants, 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.720 and intendedly permanent immigrants living in the US in preparation 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.880 for deporting them. The administration argued that the US is 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.640 being invaded by such people and that many of them 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:08.760 have violent criminal intent. As of June fifteenth of this year, 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.760 over fifty six thousand people were actively being detained by 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:18.280 Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. Of those, seventy two 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.160 percent had no criminal record at all, and only seven 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:26.920 percent had any record of violence or property damage. Several 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:30.680 people have successfully applied for habeas relief and have been released, 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.280 and Supreme Court ruled in April that immigrants must be 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.720 given enough notice of deportation to begin due process and 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:43.480 petition for habeas relief if they choose. However, constitutional experts 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.280 and human rights organizations have raised concerns that not all 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.800 detainees understand or are able to access their right to 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:56.439 due process because of the speed and scale of the detentions. Furthermore, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.040 officials in the administration have told the press that their 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:05.560 considering suspended ding Habeas corpus entirely. This is a potential 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:11.080 problem for everyone in America because without recourse against false 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.680 or illegal imprisonment, you don't have the due process to 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:17.920 prove that you haven't committed a crime, or that you 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.000 are a citizen, or that you otherwise deserve to go free. 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.920 If you can be imprisoned without due process, the other 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.840 rights granted to people in America go out the window. 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:34.480 So even if habeas corpus you have the body sounds archaic, 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:44.840 it's actually quite important, perhaps especially today. Today's episode is 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.480 based on the article why is habeas corpus important? On 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:50.720 how stuffworks dot com written by Josh Clark. Brain Stuff 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.199 is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:55.960 dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:59.640 podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:12.719 or whereever you listen to your favorite shows. M