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need a good definition/explination of habeas corpus for sixth graders.
Submitted by wraiththirteen on Mon, 11/02/2009 - 19:39
my mom is a sixth grade school teacher and she is asking for it, and I am not an expert on this so any help would be appreciated. thanks. » |
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Habeas Corpus, "you should
Habeas Corpus, "you should have the body," guarantees that a person can only be arrested pursuant to the law, and not simply at the will of some despotic governing authority. It is a legal procedure in the form of a writ that demands that a person be brought before a magistrate and charged under due process, or else that he be immediately released. It protects the people by preventing government from making arbitrary arrests.
On suspending it :
"Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions?
The parties who may be arrested may be charged instantly with a well defined crime; of course, the judge will remand them. If the public safety requires that the government should have a man imprisoned on less probable testimony in those than in other emergencies, let him be taken and tried, retaken and retried, while the necessity continues, only giving him redress against the government for damages.
Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant suspension." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788
"A government of reason is better than one of force." --Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush, 1820
Bumping so one of
our great DP family members may have a good answer. I am sick and my brain is mush.
Prepare & Share the Message of Freedom through Positive-Peaceful-Activism.
Hope you're feeling better soon, QS
Take care of yourself! : )
Wikipedia has a good article
Wikipedia has a good article on it.
Here's my attempt at a paraphrase. (I think it came out about 2nd grade level so please edit it.)
And I'm not a lawyer so if there are any looking please check and correct. Thanks.
When people are in being held prisoner - like in jail, or a mental hospital, or immigration detention, or something like that - sometimes the people holding them prisoner aren't supposed to be holding them. Maybe they made a mistake (like forgetting to let them go when their sentence was up, or arresting the wrong person). Maybe they don't have the authority to hold them. Maybe the law doesn't say a person in this situation should be held - like immigration taking a citizen, legal resident, or visa holder.
"Habeas Corpus" is how you ask a judge to have a little trial to see if the person should be let go. This isn't a trial to see if they committed a crime. This is a trial to see if the person holding them is doing it by the rules. It's between the judge and the people holding the prisoner. The person being held can ask for this. Or somebody else can ask for it for him (like if the people holding him won't let him ask.)
Then the judge makes the people holding the prisoner show what law lets them do that. And if they don't show up or can't prove they have the authority to hold the prisoner and that the law allows it, the judge orders them to let the prisoner go.
Habeas means "We demand that YOU HAVE" and corpus means "THE BODY of evidence, law, and power". A "writ" of Habeas Corpus is a request - usually in writing - that the judge demand the people holding the prisoner show their authority to do so.
During a rebellion (like the Civil War) or an invasion of the country, the President can temporarily restrict the courts from doing this, or limit how and when they can do it. At any other time prisoners can ask the court to do this check or somebody can ask for them.
Habeas Corpus doesn't mean that someone can resist arrest if he thinks the arrest is not legal. He still has to go with the policeman. But once he's in jail or whatever he can use a writ of Habeas Corpus to have a judge check if the arrest or imprisonment IS illegal, and let him out if it is.
= = = =
"Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job."
That means: For each job "created or saved" about five were destroyed.
thanks
although the way schools are now that is probably an 8th grade level
In short, my understanding
In short, my understanding is that it requires authorities to provide a reason for arresting someone.
That' a very good explanation ...
and I believe that Habeas Corpus can be translated as "Produce the Body", as noted above.