Trump orders the courts to do the “right thing”.
The Right Thing
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said the Trump administration is considering suspending habeas corpus, depending “on whether the courts do the right thing.”
President Donald Trump has argued that the U.S. is being “invaded” by undocumented immigrants and has acted accordingly. In March, the administration invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify the due process-free deportations of more than 230 immigrants to El Salvador, where they are being incarcerated without charge. On Friday, Miller suggested that Trump may suspend habeas corpus, which was most famously done during the Civil War.
Miller fielded questions outside the White House, including one from the far-right, conspiracy-peddling site Gateway Pundit.
“President Trump has talked about potentially suspending habeas corpus to take care of the illegal immigration problem,” he said. “When could we see that happen, do you think?”
Miller replied:
Well, the Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion. So, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at.
Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not. At the end of the day, Congress passed a body of law, known as the Immigration and Nationality Act, which stripped Article III courts, that’s the judicial branch, of jurisdiction over immigration cases. So, Congress actually passed, it’s called jurisdiction-stripping legislation. It passed a number of laws that say that the Article III courts aren’t even allowed to be involved in immigration cases.
Courts are ultimately the arbiters of what “the right thing” is, per U.S. laws. However, Miller is making clear the administration is prepared to arrogate to itself the right to determine whether court orders are valid or not. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld a lower court ruling ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. Trump is currently defying the ruling.
What Is Habeas Corpus?
Habeas Corpus deals with illegal confinement without being charged with any crimes.
The phrase is from the Latin habeās, second person singular present subjunctive active of habēre “to have”, “to hold”; and corpus, accusative singular of corpus “body”.
Please consider ArtI.S9.C2.1 Suspension Clause and Writ of Habeas Corpus
Article I, Section 9, Clause 2:
The 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.
This Clause is the only place in the Constitution in which the Great Writ is mentioned, a strange fact in the context of the regard with which the right was held at the time the Constitution was written and stranger in the context of the role the right has come to play in the Supreme Court’s efforts to constitutionalize federal and state criminal procedure.
Suspension During the Civil War
Please consider Suspension During the Civil War
On April 27, 1861, the right of habeas corpus was unilaterally suspended by President Abraham Lincoln in Maryland during the American Civil War. Lincoln had received word that anti-war Maryland officials intended to destroy the railroad tracks between Annapolis and Philadelphia, which was a vital supply line for the army preparing to fight the South.
Lincoln’s action was rapidly challenged in court and overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Maryland (led by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney) in Ex parte Merryman. Chief Justice Taney ruled the suspension unconstitutional, stating that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus.
In January 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that in his opinion: “There is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution. There’s a prohibition against taking it away.” He was challenged by Sen. Arlen Specter who asked him to explain how it is possible to prohibit something from being taken away, without first being granted.
The Department of Justice in the George W. Bush administration took the position in litigation that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 does not amount to a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed in a 2-1 decision, on February 20, 2007, which the U.S. Supreme Court initially declined to review. The U.S. Supreme Court then reversed its decision to deny review and took up the case in June 2007. In June 2008, the court ruled 5-4 that the act did suspend habeas and found it unconstitutional.
This is idiotic but the cult is cheering.
I did not think Trump would lead the nation to a Constitutional Crisis but I am starting to think I may be wrong.
The US is not being invaded. And the courts have already ruled against Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Trump’s threat is a blanket interpretation that everyone here illegally is an enemy invader.
No one should be cheering this.