Preview

Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1777 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror
Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror
POL 201
April 15, 2013

Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror

Civil liberties, Habeas Corpus, and the War on Terror have been the forefront of Congress since 2001 with the terrorist

attack against The United States. Although there have been many attacks before, none have hit the American people in

such a manner to question whether our civil liberties are at stake. As a member of the Armed Forces I swore to support

and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic at all cost. A sense of

pride, loyalty and commitment engulfs me when I hear the words for equal justice and liberty for all when it comes to

serving my country that practices and honors American citizen’s civil liberties. Unfortunately, the liberties that most

Americans take for granted; are the same liberties that other people from different realms of the world come to obtain.

The War on Terror would impact lives deeply from this point on and the civil liberties of every American citizen and

noncitizen would change the history of what we were founded on.

Former President George W. Bush and his administration set out to capture those

thought to be responsible for the terrorist attacks on American soil. In addition Former President

Bush and his administration went to great lengths to go beyond the reach of the judicial system

which enforces the writ of Habeas Corpus. These actions have been highly debated across the

nation. Habeas Corpus original meaning can be best defined as a demand by the courts to which a

government agency produces a prisoner and demonstrates that they have the proper grounds in

which to hold them. “It is the process by which Common Law countries ensure the second

freedom mentioned in the U.S. Declaration of Independence Liberty and the right not to be

imprisoned arbitrarily in its most

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    p) Ultimate Goal: is for the maintenance of the honor, their rights, the equality, the security, and the glory of my native state in the Union…

    • 3753 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    must try all other means possible before they can apply to the federal courts for Habeas Corpus.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    POL 201 Final Paper

    • 1580 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In this paper I will be deliberate on the history of Habeas Corpus and how it has matured over the years. I will describe the beginning of the Habeas Corpus and the position it takes part in the U.S. and what recent act is being used. The United States Constitution must be more effectively unified into the Guantanamo methods to give equal civil rights to inmates despite what their nationality maybe, but to also have more cordial ways of reviewing obstructive servicemen to absolutely verify if they really should be treated as extremists that we should fear.…

    • 1580 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Osama bin Laden is a well-known member of the islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda. Osama and al-Qaeda are known because of their devastating attacks on September 11, 2001. Their was a total of 4 planes that were hijacked on September 11. Two planes flew into the World Trade center collapsing the Twin Towers. Both planes having enough jet fuel to go from New York to China. Afterward a third plane hijacked and purposely crashed into the Pentagon. A fourth plane was later hijacked but the passengers over took the plane and crashed it into a field in pennsylvania. Over $100 billion costed for America after the attacks. Almost 3,000 died that day and will…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    War is a very scary and dangerous monster. It brings the worst in people; it divides families and friends. It makes us question everything we know and with the media we get too much information that we don’t know what to do with it. However, by learning our history, everybody’s role in the government, learning how the system works and learning simple terms like enemy combatant and habeas corpus you can learn that there is more than just our laws and Constitution. We are not alone in this war.…

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Have you ever felt like a piece of cheese on a mouse trap just waiting for that mouse to come by and eat you; maybe even a fly stuck in a spider’s web hoping that you can get away? Well I am sure if I had been one of those people in the mist of the chaos on September 11, 2001 that had changed the life of all Americans’ across the country. I would have felt no bigger than that piece of cheese or that fly caught in the web. We were victims of a horrific terrorist attack that shook the very core of our foundation as a country. Twelve years later we are still recovering from this horrendous act. We have been fighting the war on terror for ten years. This is one of the longest wars that the United States has ever fought. While the war rages on the boundaries between national security and civil liberties are blurred. “The big threat to America is the way we react to terrorism by throwing away what everybody values about our country—a commitment to human rights” (Kennedy, 2007). Individual liberties and freedoms are important since without them one can be held indefinitely. Habeas corpus does not infringe upon a person’s civil liberties. In addition, habeas corpus allows an individual to question why they are being detained and ensures that detainees have a right to a fair trial; it is considered to be one of the foundations of constitutional democracy.…

    • 2236 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Patrick Henry’s famous words still remain in history to influence our country, but many Americans generally neglect this phrase. We often take our freedom for granted without understanding how our Founding Fathers fought for our liberty from Britain. As Americans, we should respect our country and the freedom and rights given to us. We shouldn’t take this for granted because so many people around the world are unfortunate to not have this gift that most of us were born with or given.…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Do you remember where you were on September 11, 2001? I was working as a Personal Care Provider in a Senior Home at Newport, NJ. Do you remember the feeling you felt when you saw the planes crashing on the Twin Towers in New York? I remember feeling powerless. I wanted to do something to help out the people trapped in those towers. It was a horrible feeling not to be able to help them. Right after that, President Bush declared the War on Terror and many of our troop members were sent overseas to defend our country and to try to catch those involved on this act of terror. Many people were detained and sent to Guantanamo bay. They were accused of being enemy combatants. Some of them were guilty, some of them were not. I personally do not care for those are guilty, guilty people should pay for what they do. People make choices and they are consequences for those choices. How about those who are innocents? How about those who were victims of this hatred towards those who really hurt our country and its citizens? Is it fair for them to be paying for something they didn’t do? If the people held in Guantanamo bay are not enemy combatants, would Habeas Corpus apply to them? If Habeas Corpus could be applied to them, how easy would be for them to be released? In this paper, I will be giving a brief history of the Habeas Corpus including its purpose and its application to the present; along with that, I will be discussing about the mode of proceedings at Guantanamo bay, how difficult it is for an innocent person to prove their innocence and how easy could be for any American citizens to be caught in the same situation without a trial.…

    • 2173 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    4. The War and the Writ Habeas corpus and security in an age of terrorism…

    • 1666 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Green Mile Death Penalty

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Caplan, Lincoln. "The withered writ: habeas corpus, the age-old means for prisoners to challenge their detention, has never been more restricted than it is now." The American Prospect 24.4 (2013): 42+. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Habeas Corpus Paper

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Hoffman, Joseph Habeas corpus must be preserved for crisis, not wasted on routine cases. April 9. 2011…

    • 1714 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Habeas Corpus has been around for very many years. Although no one knows its exact origin it still dates back pretty far. Habeas Corpus has been seen as a good thing and a bad thing. It has been around for every war we have had. It has also been suspended by two of our presidents in the past. The story and history of Habeas Corpus is a very old one but it is also a very interesting one too.…

    • 1859 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This essay focuses mainly on the general meaning of the right of habeas corpus according to the U.S constitution, habeas relationship with civil liberties, historical evolution and the American and English traditions of the writ. Sample cases in history of suspension of freedom of habeas corpus and today’s applicability of the writ is also provided. The paper also provides and analysis of the significance of habeas corpus to the current U.S. situation in tackling terrorism. At the same time, it explains interpretation…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Habeas Corpus

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Habeas Corpus is known as the Great Writ because it ensures that a person detained by the government is entitled to a judicial hearing to determine if there is any legal basis for their detention. The modern form of Habeas Corpus has evolved over the years, from it beginnings in England, to its addition to the US constitution. While Habeas Corpus pertains to every citizen that is tried in a US court, there is an argument as to weather habeas also applies to alien prisoners that are being held by the US government, on foreign land. In 2002, The Supreme Court began to get involved in this argument, considering the level of the war on terror was high and the Bush Administration had just developed GITMO prison. The argument between the President and the Supreme Court continue today. The question that needs to be answered is: should aliens that are under U.S. detainment on foreign land be entitled the right of habeas corpus?…

    • 1490 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Habeas Corpus

    • 2172 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The history of the Right of Habeas and the war on terror, it stated in the article The Tissue of Structure by Anthony Gregory “It has been celebrated for centuries in the Anglo-American tradition as a means of questioning government power. It is probably the most revered of all of the checks and balances in our legal history—as William Blackstone commented,” “the most celebrated writ in English law” (Gregory, A. 2011, 2nd par.). The Habeas corpus is to protect the individual from being imprisoned wrongly and due to a fair trial. Although, questions arise regarding whether proper use of habeas corpus been brought into focus over the last ten years.…

    • 2172 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays