Promoted from Diaries by Chris. I sure hope I’m allowed to do that.
let us begin.
The concept behind the phrase, habeas corpus (you have the body in Latin), is the foundation of one of our most basic democratic principals: tyranny under an oppressive and arbitrary ruler is bad while freedom from tyranny is good. The idea that all individuals should enjoy the right not to be imprisoned without cause demonstrated by the state, commonly associated with the phrase habeas corpus, is fundamental to liberty.
Habeas corpus, in historical context, predates the Magna Carta, which codified the concept in 1215. Over time, the idea was further defined in British Law and was considered common law in the British colonies which became the United States. Habeas corpus is mentioned specifically and uniquely in the body of the United States Constitution, in contrast to other fundamental rights, which were amended to the original text and are known as the “bill of rights.”
A writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action, concluded the United States Supreme Court in 1969, in the case, Harris v. Nelson.
Upholding this tradition is manifest in order for a government to be organized to best protect liberty.
The current president resides in a fiction in which he believes he can best serve our liberty by dismantling or ignoring our most basic traditions of freedom, including his obligation to be bound by the rule of law.
He is guided and abetted by a band of criminals who, although motivated by various agenda, form a criminal enterprise engendering war profiteering, voter fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, destruction of public lands during the theft of its content, poisoning of children, bigotry, illegal propagandizing, money laundering, drug abuse, and murder. They brazenly hold the idea of democracy in contempt, no longer even making pretense that the law applies to themselves.
When the law no longer applies to these persons, the law no longer protects any of us. When the public debate finds as its pole the question of how best to justify such disregard for the law, the pursuit of a free and just society has stopped.
The current president on the United States, after ensuring a stable transfer of power to persons outside his criminal circle of advisors and enablers, must resign. Until he does, no one of us is safe or at liberty.
