Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently defined habeas corpus before a congressional hearing as “the right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.”
And blew it.
OK, if habeas corpus says zip, nada, zilch about a president’s right to remove people from the United States, what does it say? Here are a few helpful facts that the former governor of North Dakota forgot in her gaffe.
• Function: It is a judicial order that requires the government to bring a detained individual before a court and justify the legality of their detention.
• It’s a constitutional right: Our founders wrote habeas corpus into the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 9), as a key bulwark against tyranny.
• Protection: It protects against unlawful imprisonment, e