There seems to be some confusion in America about Due Process and the right to a Writ of Habeus Corpus. I can understand. Why, it seems like only yesterday that no one worried about being abducted by government agents in America. Russia, yes. North Korea, yes. Burbank? Really?
Since I am still a lawyer, I have decided as a public service to explain these murky issues to a wondering public.
Let’s start with history. When those guys in the funny wigs wrote the Constitution back in 17something or other, all they did was outline what kind of government we were going to have and what the President needs to do if he wants a grilled cheese sandwich.
But Thomas Jefferson, who always was a troublemaker (See, Declaration of Independence), and his buddies (which included some rabble-rousing states–looking at you, Rhode Island) said that the Constitution didn’t go far enough. It didn’t protect the rights of the people. It didn’t stop the government from doing amusing things like throwing someone in jail for criticizing the President, or establishing the Zoroastrians as the State Religion.
(One of those two things happened in America in the early 1800s. Guess which one.)
There was a big fight about it, Jefferson and his crew on one side and the Federalists on the other. Okay, it wasn’t a fight so much as it was a rap battle. Jammin’ Tommy J won that one and the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. It included the right to free speech, to worship the way you wanted and, surprisingly, the right to have some idiot judge listen to your tale of woe before the government can lock you up.
That last one we call “Due Process.” The way Jammin’ Tommy J and Rhode Island put it, you can’t be deprived of your liberty without due process.
It’s not optional. It’s mandatory. The government wants to send you to an El Salvador prison? Some judge has to say OK first.
Same with the Writ of Habeus Corpus (Latin for “Bring the Body,” which also sounds like a great Disco song). If you are “unlawfully detained” (by being sent from Burbank to an El Salvador prison courtesy of the US Government), you can apply to a judge and have that judge look at whether you belong there at all.
Aha! Some will say. But that can be suspended.
Yes, yes it can. In a time of war, rebellion, or insurrection. Which are we in now?
Bottom line, my friends, is that this is America. Those guys in the funny wigs thought all this through more than 250 years ago. They were pretty specific about due process and the writ of habeus corpus. It’s all there in the Constitution.
You could look it up. Maybe someone in the present administration needs to do that.
Mark Bruce, Writer 