The explosive New York Times exclusive about habeas corpus and the Insurrection Act got me thinking of a memorable discussion in my law school Con Crim Pro (Constitutional Criminal Procedure) class.

The discussion was about the definition of habeas corpus. It’s often defined as “you shall have the body” or “that you have the body.” I proposed an alternate definition that struck me as being more descriptive of the outcome of a writ of habeas corpus:  Deliver the body.

I use it to this day. For a relatively quick and dirty habeas corpus primer, click here.

Habeas corpus is nicknamed the Great Writ. It’s a venerable right enshrined in Article I, Section 9, Clause 2 of the Constitution:

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.

Alexander Hamilton thought that the Great Writ rendered the Bill of Rights unnecessary. Sorry to disappoint fans of the musical which depicts Hamilton as a proto-liberal. He was not. He was a willing tool of the plutocrats of his day.

Here’s a good summary of the historical roots of this right:

The history of habeas corpus dates back to the very dawn of English common law. Denial of habeas corpus rights was a key grievance underlying the American Revolution, and the right to apply to the federal courts for habeas review dates to the beginning of the republic.”

The quote comes from an unlikely source: Trump White House staff secretary Will Scharf. It’s from a memo written to Chief of Staff Susie Wiles opposing Stephen Miller’s insane idea of suspending habeas corpus. Miller thought it would be cool to claim that illegal immigration is an invasion. It is not and Scharf argued against it.

Will Scharf is no hero. His arguments against the suspension of the Great Writ and the invocation of the Insurrection Act emphasized the problems such actions could cause for Team MAGA, not whether they were right or wrong. Discussions of right and wrong in the Trump West Wing are as rare as an Evangelical preacher at a mosque during Ramadan.

Repeat after me: Nothing is normal, everything is political, nothing is sacred.

Stephen Miller was not alone in advocating these fascistic moves. JD Vance had Miller’s back. The Veep claims to be a libertarian when he’s really an authoritarian who likes the idea of cracking down on dissent and said so at a staff meeting:

Mr. Vance got to the point. They needed to invoke the Insurrection Act, swiftly, to crush the unrest in Minnesota. It would be painful in the short term, he said, but the message it would send — that paid agitators could not get away with disrupting ICE operations — would make sure no one tried it again. (There was no evidence that either Mr. Pretti or Ms. Good had been paid activists.)

The bit about “paid agitators” agitated me. What happened last winter in Minnesota was a spontaneous reaction to government overreach, which is something Republicans used to oppose.

The NYT bombshell is another excerpt from the upcoming book Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Good on them for publishing this before the book’s release date. That’s something White House insider books don’t always do. It’s particularly interesting coming from access journalists like Haberman and Swan. Have they burned their access with this book? Stay tuned.

Back to the post title. There *is* a body I’d to see delivered: that of JD Vance’s political future. He will do or say anything to achieve power. His chances to become the 48th president lessen by the day, especially since the Insult Comedian is pitting Vance against the equally uncharismatic Marco Rubio in a cage fight to determine who’s the MAGA Tsarevitch. To paraphrase John McCain, this constitutes human cockfighting between human cockroaches.

Habeas corpus is a fundamental right that ensures that nobody can be held indefinitely without a hearing. No wonder Team MAGA hates it. Delivering the body isn’t their jam but habeas corpus is as American as apple butter.

Repeat after me: Suspend Stephen Miller and JD Vance, not the writ of habeas corpus.

The last word goes to Bruce Springsteen with a song praised by the Brennan Center for its use of habeas corpus: