What is habeas corpus?
Habeas corpus, or the Great Writ, is the legal procedure that keeps the government from holding you indefinitely without showing cause. When you challenge your detention by filing a habeas corpus petition, the executive branch must explain to a neutral judge its justification for holding you. It’s been a pillar of Western law since the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215.
Habeas corpus has been a right in America from the time the first settlers came to our shores. The Founders of our nation thought habeas corpus was so essential to preserving liberty, justice and democracy that they enshrined it in the very first article of the United States Constitution.
What happened to habeas corpus?
In its waning days, the last Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006. Among many ill-considered and dangerous provisions, the MCA revoked the right to habeas corpus for anyone detained at Guantanamo Bay, as well as for any foreigner the government detains anywhere and labels an “enemy combatant,” including legal residents of the U.S.
Why must habeas corpus be restored?
The Founders of our nation considered habeas corpus the most fundamental of rights because it insured that the executive branch could not hold people without cause. A vast majority of the detainees at Guantanamo are there by mistake, guilty only of being sold to the U.S. for a bounty. When our government revokes the right to habeas corpus it shows other governments they can do the same and puts U.S. citizens traveling and working abroad at risk. If we do not defend the detainees’ right to habeas corpus, and the rights of our neighbors, family and friends who are not yet citizens, we all lose.
(Click on link below to find out how you can help restore habeas corpus)
Link to www.restorehabeascorpus.org
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