How can we justify the war on terrorism abroad when the war was brought to our door steps with very little remaining abroad but some small resistances? This may be a difficult question to answer but it is one that can be easily found through understanding of the criminal mind and the way the terrorists work. The main objective here is to show how the war is going and how the terrorists were classified as such. I will also be providing information on Habeas Corpus both past and present as well as what it means both in English and American traditions. Furthermore the way everything will be written will answer very specific questions asked and I shall answer them.
The first portion of the essay is about the history of habeas corpus and how it came to be. This is an act that originated back in 1863 to suspend the right to trial if you are found guilty of treason or terrorist actions against the United States and it is enacted by the president when the necessity arises (Habeas Corpus Act of 1863. (2009). Given that this is a mandate from the president himself courts as well as judges who have issued a writ must suspend it until the president has resumed the use of habeas corpus.
The habeas Corpus is a tradition that celebrates as liberties ultimately safeguard (Fallon Jr., R. H. (2010). Liberty when referring to imprisonment without judicial hearing is the reason why habeas corpus is enacted on behalf of the prisoner or by the prisoner itself. The ones being denied this right at this moment are the “enemy combatants” or “illegal combatants” who have been imprisoned without a hearing due to their alleged crimes. This is a country with many laws and civil liberties along with implied liberties based on the constitution and the bill of r...
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... Act of 1863. (2009). Habeas Corpus Act of 1863, 1.
Fallon Jr., R. H. (2010). THE SUPREME COURT, HABEAS CORPUS, AND THE WAR ON TERROR: AN ESSAY ON LAW AND POLITICAL SCIENCE. Columbia Law Review,110(2), 352-398.
Sutton, J. (2012, April 19). Two Guantanamo Uighur prisoners head to El Salvador. Chicago Tribune News. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-guantanamo-salvadorbre83i1ha-20120419,0,1170410.story
CORBETT, R. J. (2012). Suspension of Law during Crisis. Political Science Quarterly, 127(4), 627-657.
Pond, B. C. (2009). Boumediene v. Bush: Habeas Corpus, Exhaustion, and the Special Circumstances Exception. Brigham Young University Law Review, 2009(6), 1907-1933.
Jennifer K. , E. (2010, February 03). Enemy combatant detainees: habeas corpus challenges in federal court . Retrieved from https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33180.pdf
In the article “Is Terrorism Distinctively Wrong?”, Lionel K. McPherson criticizes the dominant view that terrorism is absolutely and unconditionally wrong. He argues terrorism is not distinctively wrong compared to conventional war. However, I claim that terrorism is necessarily wrong.
One of President Lincoln’s most notable infringements was his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Within months of taking the presidential oath, Lincoln ordered the suspension of habeas corpus, citing “supra-constitutional reasons for taking unilateral executive action.” Attorney General Edward Bates’ defense of Lincoln’s actions regarding habeas corpus in which he refers to it as a privilege rather than a guaranteed civil liberty serves as basis for proving the illegitimacy of this act. If the writ of habeas corpus, which protects citizens from unlawful imprisonment, is viewed in the manner that Bates (and Lincoln for that matter) refers to it, one of the most basic constitutional liberties of a right to trial can easily be deprived and can very well devolve into despotism later
If the right to habeas corpus is not being extended to the detainee, the majority judges are of the opinion that the branches such as executive and etc. except judicial, would have a whole control over Guantanamo Bay causing the judicial branch to have no position in reviewing the legal processes. The majority judges had stated
By 1954, the zeal had subsided. These short trials remain one of the most disgraceful times in modern U.S. history (McCarthyism, pbs.org). There are researchers and critics who still find the shadow of McCarthyism looming in the present history of the United States. About two years ago, in a Presidential Address, George Bush, pleaded the Congress to ratify legislation that would prolong the time-bound terms of the notorious anti-terror law, originally planned to end on December 31st, 2005 and later extended. Advocated by Attorney General John Ashcroft and accepted by the Congress in the scary upshot of the 9/11 fanatic assaults, the Patriot Act has been depicted by its critics as the utmost warning to U.S. human rights since the Alien and Sedition Acts or the postponement of habeas corpus during the Civil War.
Cole, D., & Dempsey, J. X. (2006). Terrorism and the constitution: sacrificing civil liberties in the name of national security. New York: New Press.
...rule of law from being applied to the perpetrators of criminal activity of constitutional dimension.” With every effort taken, the Americans were finally released.
The most blatant abuse of Lincoln's power was his suspension of habeas corpus. The suspension of this constitutional guarantee, by which a person could not be imprisoned indefinitely without being charges with some specific crime, around much opposition throughout the country. Although Lincoln himself made no concentrated efforts to suppress political oppositions, the repeal of habeas corpus enabled overzealous civil and military authorities to imprison thousands of people who were vocal in their opposition to the war against the South. During the war, in the case Ex parte Merryman, Chief Justice Taney ordered Lincoln to grant a writ of habeas corpus to a Southern agitator who had been arbitrarily jailed by military authorities in Maryland. Lincoln ignored the order. After the war, in the case Ex parte Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled that president could not suspend habeas corpus without the consent of Congress.
Gunther, G. (1991). Constitutional Law. Twelfth Edition. New York: The Foundation Press, Inc. pp. 1154-1161.
Rostow, Eugene V., "Great Cases Make Bad Law: The War Powers Act" (1972). Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 2143.
For instance, if there were a terrorist in the United States planning to blow up a government building, but you could not suspend the writ of habeas corpus, it would take too long to make a case out of it, and there could have been a preventable tragedy. It could be easier to just have probable cause to keep them from harming anyone, but it defies everything our country was built on. President Lincoln had said, during his presidency, “the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the country may require it” (Source B). However, if a corrupted, but influential president in the legislative branch, decides to “go to war”, he could get away with many arrests that he could not have before they had “went to war”. Justice O’Connor believes in the suspension of the writ, as long as they are “given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention” (Source E), meaning that they must have at least probable cause. Yet there could be many loophole opportunities in this, which is why the ability to suspend the writ Habeas Corpus should be
Harr, S. J., Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. H. (2012). Constitutional Law and the Criminal Justice
The book raises the importance of, and questions, the writ of habeas corpus. Carter used a writ of habeas corpus to get a federal trial. Many question the legality of Carter going into federal jurisdiction, when his case should have been heard before the Supreme Court of New Jersey. It was a gamble, but the federal judge gave fair justice to Carter and Artis. The State of New Jersey appealed the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the District Court’s ruling.
Schultz, David, and John R. Vile. The Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties in America. 710-712. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale Virtual Reference Library, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. .
The 'Secondary' of the 'Se Exploring Constitutional Conflicts. 22 November 2004. The U.S. Sedition Act. 1996. The 'Secondary' of the 'Second World War I Document Archive. 22 November 2004.
Hall, Kermit L, eds. The Oxford guide to United States Supreme Court decisions New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.