You probably have heard the term “Habeas Corpus” in the news the last week or so. Both sides, fighting it out, saying they are right. Well, what is Habeas Corpus and why should you even care?

Some background. Wikipedia says:

Habeas Corpus is the name of a legal action, or writ, through which a person can seek relief from unlawful detention of himself or another person. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action

Now, just recently the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners (specifically at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) will get “Habeas Corpus”.

This has gotten the Right Wing, Conservatives, Rudy Guliani, President Bush, John McCain and Fox News up in arms. They are saying that this makes America unsafe. They say that Osama Bin Laden would be set free if captured. They say that , Democrats have a “September 10th” mindset.

What they fail to realize is that Habeas Corpus isn’t a free ride out of prison, it is far from it. What it is, is that prisoners have one chance to challenge that they were unlawfully imprisoned.

Take this example. The US Govt arrests you. They say you are a terrorist, and enemy combatant. They throw you in Gitmo and leave you there. What can you do? You are a US Citizen, you were born in the good old USA, you aren’t a terrorist. Do you have any recourse? Well before the Supreme Court ruling, and under President Bush’s crazy interpretation of The Constitution, you would have no say, you wouldn’t have access to the court’s or even to file a brief to PROVE who you are.

Just because you file a brief, or appeal or anything doesn’t even mean that you would be considered by the courts, you just have the right to file a writ for Habeas Corpus, you wouldn’t be set free, you would just have the same rights as any US prisoner.

Now, the other side of the story. praises the Supreme Court ruling. I really expected this as he has a background in Constitutional Law. He believes in “The Rule of Law“. (aka “No one is above the law, even the President”)

Our Constitution should should be able to handle terrorists. doesn’t want to give terrorist suspects the same privileges/rights as regular criminals. He just believes that ever detainee has the right to at least defend themselves or question ONCE why they were detained.

This ruling isn’t to protect terrorists, they are not going to be any more free or are we going to go after them with any less conviction. This ruling protects me and you. This protects us from our government invoking laws and rules that are no where in the Constitution, which they have been doing for the last 7 years, which should have us questioning, how can we have a government that doesn’t even follow “The Rule of Law”

We are better than that, the founding fathers were smart, and they based this country on The Rule of Law, and it should stay that way. Rebranding criminals as terrorists and throwing away the Constitution doesn’t do anyone any good.