“Gravely Wrong the Day It Was Decided”: The Human Cost of Suspending Habeas Corpus in America

Written by: Sam Orlando

STAUNTON, VIRGINIA - As President Donald Trump and his advisers float the idea of suspending habeas corpus to fast-track deportations, civil liberties advocates and legal scholars warn: we’ve been here before—and the outcomes were devastating.

Habeas corpus, Latin for “you shall have the body,” is a cornerstone of democratic legal systems. It guarantees that no person can be imprisoned without cause and judicial oversight. The Founding Fathers, deeply wary of unchecked government power, enshrined this right in Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution—before the Bill of Rights was even ratified. Rooted in centuries of English common law, they saw it as an essential guardrail against tyranny.

Its suspension in American history has been rare—and almost always accompanied by grave violations of civil and human rights.

🔒 The Civil War: Jailing Dissenters in the Name of Unity

In 1861, amidst a divided nation, President Abraham Lincoln unilaterally suspended habeas corpus to stifle dissent and secure the Union. Thousands were detained without charge.

One such person was Frank Key Howard, editor of the Baltimore Exchange—and the grandson of Francis Scott Key. After publishing editorials critical of Lincoln’s military occupation of Maryland, Howard was seized by federal troops and imprisoned at Fort McHenry, the very site celebrated in the national anthem. He was held without trial and later wrote a scathing memoir, Fourteen Months in American Bastiles, describing the brutality and lawlessness of his detention.

Lincoln defended the suspension as necessary wartime policy, but critics saw it as a violation of the Constitution. Chief Justice Roger Taney, in Ex parte Merryman, ruled the suspension unconstitutional—but Lincoln ignored the ruling. The episode remains a cautionary tale about executive overreach during national crises.

🏕️ World War II: Internment of Japanese Americans

In 1942, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, leading to the forced relocation and incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans, most of them citizens. Entire families were stripped of homes, jobs, and civil rights and sent to internment camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.

There was no evidence of espionage or sabotage. The detentions were based on racial ancestry alone.

The Supreme Court upheld the legality of this mass internment in the 1944 decision Korematsu v. United States. Writing for the majority, Justice Hugo Black accepted the government’s claim of “military necessity.”

But the stain remained.

In 2018, in the decision for Trump v. Hawaii, Chief Justice John Roberts made history by formally repudiating Korematsu, even though the case wasn't directly under review:

"Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided... and has been overruled in the court of history. And—to be clear—it is overruled."

Though delivered in dicta—non-binding commentary—the statement marked a symbolic but powerful reversal, acknowledging the enduring harm of denying legal protections in the name of national security.

⛓️ Post-9/11: Guantánamo and the Fight for Due Process

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush established the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, where hundreds of men were held—some for years—without trial. The Bush administration argued that enemy combatants held abroad were not entitled to habeas corpus.

The legal battle stretched on until 2008, when the Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that detainees did, in fact, have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts.

By then, the human toll was profound: detainees reported abuse, indefinite confinement, and deteriorating mental health. Some were found to be innocent after years of imprisonment.

🚨 What Happens When Habeas Corpus Is Suspended

Each of these cases shares a tragic theme: when habeas corpus is suspended or curtailed, marginalized populations pay the highest price. Immigrants, ethnic minorities, political dissidents—people already viewed with suspicion—become the first to be denied rights.

Now, as Trump and allies suggest suspending habeas corpus to deal with immigration, critics fear a repeat of past mistakes.

“If we forget what happened when we locked up Japanese Americans, or ignored court orders during the Civil War, we risk doing it all again,” says civil rights attorney and historian Mia Kiyota. “It starts with one group. It never ends there.”

The suspension of habeas corpus may seem like a legal technicality. But its history is written in ruined lives, lost freedoms, and national shame.