from Hacker News

Trump administration "looking at" suspending habeas corpus

by kilroy123 on 5/9/25, 10:59 PM with 15 comments

• by treetalker on 5/9/25, 11:43 PM

  Pertinent summary of the constitutional basis for habeas corpus and its suspension,[1] and of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act,[2] which may provide good background for the folks here:

  [1]: https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S9-C2-1/...

  [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_Corpus_Suspension_Act_%...

  Habeas corpus is one of a class of legal vehicles known as extraordinary writs. Many of the ones that survive in American law (primarily in state courts — federal law has abolished writs like audita querela, coram nobis, coram vobis, etc.) tend to be appellate in nature, yet typically original actions in the appellate court. For example, writs of prohibition, mandamus, and certiorari are alive and well. Habeas and quo warranto (still common and used to challenge a governmental official's right to hold the office) are extraordinary writs and original actions, but usually initiated in the court of first instance (i.e., trial court).

  The Annotated Constitution (see first link) is an excellent resource and worth bookmarking.

• by BLKNSLVR on 5/10/25, 12:21 AM

  What happens when all the immigrants are finally deported but the MAGA base are worse off than before?

  Why are the various polls only showing mid-50% disapproval of Trump rather than 90+%?

  I'm as cynical as the next guy, and I know the ol' bell curve truth of 50% of the population are of below average intelligence, but I think I've miscalculated the level of intelligence needed to identify basic consequences and cause and effect.

  What I find funny is that it's not the immigrants getting the 'free ride' on the backs of the MAGA base. The MAGA base has been getting a free ride off the backs of the scientists and intellectual leaders that the US was able to attract since WWII, and what they've been able to build as a result of that.

  Trump is alienating the shoulders upon which the rest of the US stood (scientists, researchers, and thought leaders) as well as, the immigrant community that are in the US to learn to be the scientists, researchers and thought leaders of the future or to do some of the jobs that non-immigrants don't want to do.

  There is no end game that doesn't leave the US as the memory of the shadow of its former self.

• by tocs3 on 5/9/25, 11:45 PM

  It is worth remembering that habeas corpus is written into the US Constitution. It can and has been suspended but are we really facing the same dangers now?

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus_in_the_United_St...

• by sherdil2022 on 5/10/25, 1:45 AM

  This was posted in a different HN article. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came

• by bediger4000 on 5/10/25, 12:19 AM

  Seems like suspending habeus corpus writs would be a genuinely bad idea for a free society such as ours.