The Trump administration, CNN reports, is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, depending on “whether the courts do the right thing or not.” Those quoted phrases are from Trump aide Stephen Miller, according to whom the “right thing” consists of letting Donald Trump do whatever Donald Trump wants to do, regardless of whether what he wants to do is, you know, legal.

The Latin phrase habeas corpus means “you shall have the body.” What it boils down to is that if you are arrested, a judge can require your captors to bring you (that’s the body part) to court where you can argue that your arrest is not legally justified (and your captors can argue that it is).

It’s a legal principle we inherited from England that dates to “time immemorial” — that is, before the beginning of of Richard I’s kingship in 1189 — originating in the 1166 Assize of Clarendon, and it or something very like it is a basic foundational element of any legal system that respects individual rights.

Without habeas corpus, government officials can just whisk you away to prison on any charge they care enough to make up and hold you for a long time whether there’s any justification at all or not.

A hypothetical:

You’re arrested for the murder of John Smith. As it happens, John Smith is alive, not missing, indeed has been seen and recorded on video eight hours after your arrest, tucking in to an Oklahoma onion burger at Sid’s Diner in El Reno.

Without habeas corpus, your captors can keep you in jail (per the Speedy Trial Act of 1974, which codifies a constitutional provision) for up to a month before even indicting you for the murder that didn’t happen, followed by 10 days until arraigning you the murder that didn’t happen, followed by 60 days before actually taking the case to trial.

But if you file a petition for habeas corpus, you can show a judge evidence that not only is there no probable cause to believe you murdered John Smith, but that John Smith is alive and well. The judge can call BS on your arrest and free you.

That’s a good thing, and the US Constitution provides, in Article I, Section 9, that “[t]he Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Neither the US nor any portion of it is currently in rebellion.

Neither the US nor any portion of it is currently being invaded.

There’s no “emergency” imperiling the “public safety.”

There’s just Donald J. Trump throwing a tantrum over the courts following the law instead of letting him do whatever he wants to do.

Does Trump WANT a rebellion? Because suspending habeas corpus for stupid, selfish, and illegal reasons sounds like a great way to get a rebellion. He may not care about public opinion, but the ice he’s on that keeps it from drowning him is getting thinner by the moment.

Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

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