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Writ of Habeas Corpus a Right or Not

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Writ of Habeas Corpus: A Right or Not?
Shelly Shelton
POL 201 American National Government
Instructor: Amy Lyons
August 4, 2014

The words war, terrorism, and death strike fear, anger, and pain in to the hearts of many. We want to retaliate against those who have caused us to feel this way. To somehow make them pay for the wrongs they have committed against us. In order to do this we kill, capture and or detain them. This is a fact of war, even an undeclared one. When these persons are taken prisoner do they lose their right to fair treatment, trial by constitutional standards and civilized means of interrogation? To answer these questions and others let us look at our history as well as review how our courts have viewed cases and situations that have arisen from actual war and the war on terrorism. Looking at the history of the United States it can be seen that the framers of the Constitution took civil liberties and civil rights into consideration when writing the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Article I Section 9 of the Constitution states “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” This writ is issued to determine if a person has been afforded due process of the law and to prevent unlawful imprisonment. It literally means “you should have the body.” (Unknown, 2013). The writ has been mentioned as early as the fourteenth century in England. The English people lived with the knowledge that they could be arrested and imprisoned by the king until they rebelled and insisted on fair and just treatment. After the colonies won their independence from England and settled their internal differences they set about establishing their own rules and regulations. Knowing the importance of fair treatment they incorporated not only section 9 of Article I of the

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