Trump staffer Stephen Miller recently stated that the administration is “looking at” suspending habeas corpus, likely to expedite deporting the administration's targets. But what is habeas corpus? And how else could this be used against us?
Habeas corpus translates to “you shall have the body.” Legally, it means that a person under arrest has the right to go before a judge in court. The person argues for release. The state argues detention. Habeas corpus has technically only been suspended four times in this country’s history, most notably during the Civil War and after the attack on Pearl Harbor. But in 1996, President Clinton set a precedent with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA).
Amid accusations of people on death row “gaming the system” by filing appeals, Clinton limited them to a single habeas corpus petition. After the neo-Nazi Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, people were impatient to see the people responsible executed. But AEDPA created a significant barrier for anyone wrongfully convicted or experiencing miscarriages of justice — people who disproportionately are Black Americans, not white supremacists.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem apparently doesn’t even know what habeas corpus is. When Trump was asked if presidents should uphold the Constitution, all he could say was, “I don’t know." Here's what we do know.
A future without habeas corpus would accelerate what we've been experiencing, from lynching "trials" to life sentences. Legal protections like habeas corpus have preserved some Black lives. But they aren't liberation — or guaranteed.