Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2000

Publication Title

Minnesota Law Review

Publication Title (Abbreviation)

Minn. L. Rev.

Volume

85

Issue

1

First Page

147

Last Page

214

Abstract

One would be hard-pressed to identify a more extolled, and storied, aspect of the Anglo-American legal tradition than the writ of habeas corpus. Tracing its lineage back to the Magna Carta, the Great Writ was so revered by the Framers of the U.S Constitution that they expressly prohibited its suspension except in times of extreme governmental distress. Writing in 1868, Chief Justice Salmon Chase characterized habeas as "the most important human right in the Constitution," the ''best and only sufficient defense of personal freedom." Justice Brennan, writing almost one hundred years later, observed that the history of habeas "is inextricably intertwined with the growth of fundamental rights of personal liberty."

Rights

© 2000 Wayne A. Logan

Comments

First published in Minnesota Law Review.

Faculty Biography

http://law.fsu.edu/our-faculty/profiles/wlogan

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