Habeas Corpus

Justice demands that an accused criminal be given the right of "habeas corpus," the ability to challenge the legality of his detention, but this right is being steadily eroded.
Rogue public officials consolidating a police state dispatch jack-booted thugs to arrest dissidents. Their victims defend themselves with firearms. Those who are captured are branded "enemy combatants," and held indefinitely, incommunicado, without any specific charges brought against them, with no access to an attorney or hope of a fair trial.A scenario from Stalin's Russia, contemporary Communist China, or some Third World dictatorship? That, surely. But it could also happen here, in the not-so-distant future.

"The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus" derives from Article 39 of the Magna Carta in 1215, that "No free man shall be taken or imprisoned ... except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land."

A court hearing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus does not rule on the innocence or guilt of the individual in custody, but only on the custodian's authority to detain him. Absent such authority, the prisoner must be released.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/history/american/403-hazards-for-habeas-corpus