David Claxton
Pol 201
Kathryn Looney
February 19, 2014
Habeas Corpus Habeas corpus is a part of the foundation of our government and we should treat even the worst of our enemies within the framework that our Constitution allows. The term “Habeas Corpus” is derived from a Latin term which means “have the body.” Habeas Corpus can be found in history first “in the Magna Carta of 1215 and is the oldest human right in the history of English-speaking civilization. (Rutherford Institute) When it comes to our liberty as citizens of the United States it is one of our most important guarantees. Citizens of the United States under Habeas Corpus have the Constitution backing them and giving them the ability …show more content…
Rasul. The decision of the court was that the courts of the United States did have the power to determine if enemy combatants were being unlawfully imprisoned. This later led to Congress passing the DTA, or Detainee Treatment Act in 2005, which affords that "no court, justice or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by an alien detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" (cfr.org 2005). In 2008 another case came before the Supreme Court who split their decision 5-4 in favor of Boumediene. In Boumediene v. Bush it was decided that detainees at Guantanamo Bay did have the constitutional right to file appeals for Habeas Corpus and claiming that they had no legitimate reason to be detained. (law.cornell.edu) “Petitioners have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. They are not barred from seeking the writ or invoking the Suspension Clause’s protections because they have been designated as enemy combatants or because of their presence at Guantanamo.” (law.cornell.edu) According to Jonathan Shaw who published an article entitled The War and the Writ: Habeas corpus and security in an age of terrorism in Harvard Magazine in 2009 “the government sought to prevent habeas review by jailing prisoners beyond the jurisdiction of American courts.” The Supreme Court later decided that while Guantanamo Bay was not on United States soil, it was considered a part of the United States as it was a base leased from Cuba on a permanent