Ex-DOJ prosecutor debunks MAGA’s favorite argument against fundamental right

On MS NOW, former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance slammed officials in President Donald Trump's administration for their arguments against habeas corpus and explained why they're so "fallacious."

Habeas corpus directly translates in Latin to "you have the body." It is the term used when a judge demands that authorities bring someone they're holding in jail and must justify their arrest and confinement, the U.S. courts' site outlines. "A writ of habeas corpus may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony or to be prosecuted."

On Monday, it was reported that last year, the White House made a very real effort to suspend the Article I right outlined in the U.S. Constitution. The information surfaced in the new book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf penned a memo for Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, saying that the administration was considering pausing the rights without any congressional authorization. The goal was to kick people out of the U.S. faster, without requiring courts to step in.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said in a May 9, 2025, press conference that the right of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion. Since then, courts have ruled that there is no "invasion."

Anyone can challenge their detention by the government in the U.S., even if they're not a U.S. citizen.

Host Antonia Hylton pointed to the rhetoric, asking, "Do you think that he is engaging in not just the immigration culture war that he has consistently used, but that he has been building a sort of legal pretext here over time?"

Vance made it clear that Miller isn't a lawyer, and his attempts to try to build a legal pretext are "a failure."

She added that Article I powers are what is allocated to Congress. Excluding a debate from President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, the "suspension of habeas during the Civil War, by and large, experts agree, uniformly, that only Congress can suspend habeas."

She agrees that Miller is clearly trying to set the stage, but the problem he has is that the basis for setting that stage is "utterly fabricated. It's something that needs to be debunked from the get-go. Habeas corpus is so critical. It's what prevents the government from disappearing people. If we allow this administration to interfere with it, there's no telling where that could end up."

"The argument that Miller was advancing was so clearly fallacious that there was a concern that it would not survive in the courts, and it might set the stage for a greater clampdown on what the administration was trying to achieve," recalled Vance.

She noted that this is the same administration that sees the law as more of an obstacle than an assurance for those in the U.S.

"So, as we get closer to the election, I think that there will be an increasing level of concern that the administration may take extreme measures absent rebellion or insurrection. They won't be able to suspend habeas. And that's one of our most important fundamental rights," Vance promised.

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