ARCHIVAL (ABC NEWS, 5-10-25):
NEWS ANCHOR: President Trump’s immigration crackdown is intensifying.

NARRATION: During President Trump’s second term, one legal term has been center stage.

ARCHIVAL (MSNBC, 5-12-25):
NEWS ANCHOR: Habeas corpus…

ARCHIVAL (CBS NEWS , 5-20-25):
GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: Habeas corpus…

ARCHIVAL (FOX5 NEWS, 5-19-25):
NEWS ANCHOR: A petition for habeas corpus.

NARRATION: So what is habeas corpus, and why is it making headlines? 

ARCHIVAL (ABC NEWS, 5-10-25):
NEWS ANCHOR: The White House says it’s considering suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right allowing people to challenge their detention in court.

NARRATION: Habeas corpus is a legal procedure that allows people who have been detained by the government to challenge their detention in court. 

It came up during the first Trump administration in 2017, when travelers from several predominantly Muslim countries were banned, stranding them at U.S. airports. 

ARCHIVAL (GLOBAL NEWS, 1-28-17):
NEWS REPORT: The order puts a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the country and a 90-day halt on travel to the U.S. by citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

NARRATION: The lawsuit that challenged that travel ban in 2017 first began not in a courtroom, but a classroom, when Yale Law School professor Michael Wishnie got a call from a former student.

MICHAEL J. WISHNIE (PROFESSOR, YALE LAW SCHOOL): Becca Heller called my cellphone and said, there is an Iraqi family and they’re being held at J.F.K., and it became clear that part of the response that was necessary was to get into federal court on something called a petition for habeas corpus. I emailed the students and my co-teachers and said, who’s ready to volunteer?

NARRATION: Wishnie’s students were spurred on by a belief that the travelers at J.F.K. Airport were being illegally detained and denied their rights to due process. 

MY KHANH NGO (YALE LAW SCHOOL ‘17): A bunch of students hopped on the e-mail, we arranged a time to call, and everything just happened. It just snowballed.

MICHAEL J. WISHNIE: By midnight, we were humming along, working hard to prepare an emergency lawsuit.

MY KHANH NGO: Myself and another student decided to have the late night shift, and I saw an email come out at 5:35. Congratulations, you have officially sued the president.

NARRATION: In many ways, Wishnie was following a road map that he himself had set years earlier when he was a Yale Law student and had filed a similar case with his classmates. 

MICHAEL J. WISHNIE: The same courthouse, the same all-nighters by students requesting emergency relief from a judge in Brooklyn, and the same lawyer for the government on the other side. It was very much a replay of what I had seen.

NARRATION: In 1991, Wishnie and his fellow students watched as another group was caught in legal limbo. This time it was Haitians, fleeing a coup and seeking asylum in the U.S.

ARCHIVAL (ABC NEWS, NIGHTLINE, 11-27-91):
NEWS REPORT: The Bush Administration is determined to stop the Haitians from making it to the U.S. Instead, they’re being detained in a refugee camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

NARRATION: The students were concerned that refugees with legitimate claims to asylum weren’t being allowed into the United States. They approached their professor, Harold Koh, about filing a lawsuit against the government.

HAROLD HONGJU KOH (PROFESSOR, YALE LAW SCHOOL): The Justice Department is very skilled in these areas of law. They can marshal a lot of resources. We only had a couple lawyers and a bunch of students. We worked like maniacs. We became sort of like this implacable, Terminator-like enemy.

MICHAEL J. WISHNIE: This call went out to the law school, we need help. You know, a few hours later I’m on a military transport plane flying to a place I’d never heard of before to meet what were suddenly my clients.

NARRATION: Court battles over the rights of one group of Haitian refugees dragged on for 18 months.

LISA DAUGAARD (YALE LAW SCHOOL ‘92): There was a lot of anger about our people and the idea that they would come to the United States. The idea that non-citizens in some way threaten the well-being of people who live here, you know, it was in play then. It is in play now.

NARRATION: A judge ultimately allowed the Haitian refugees into the U.S. 

LISA DAUGAARD: What was notable about the court proceedings was that it got in the way of what was otherwise just an unstoppable exercise of executive power. There have to be rules and there have to be limits, and courts are where we sort that out.

ARCHIVAL (ABC NEWS 2-4-17):
NEWS ANCHOR: A federal  judge in Seattle overruled his controversial travel ban.

NARRATION: In 2017, court challenges caused the administration to revise the travel ban by detailing national security concerns. It was upheld by the Supreme Court and expanded during Trump’s second term. 

ARCHIVAL (NBC NEWS 6-5-25):
ANALYST: The Trump administration has learned this time around to show their work, to tie it to what the Supreme Court has essentially said would be a lawful exercise of executive power. 

NARRATION: In 2025, President Trump began expediting mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. 

ARCHIVAL (NBC NEWS, 3-17-25):
NEWS REPORT: The Trump administration has invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador.

NARRATION: He’s been challenged by lawyers over whether their clients are receiving their rights of due process. 

ARCHIVAL (MSNBC NEWS, 4-8-25):
NEWS REPORT: While the administration is claiming victory, the highest court did add that detainees must be afforded due process and given time to challenge their detentions before they’re taken out of the country.
ANALYST: All nine justices agreed that the deportees are entitled to habeas corpus.

NARRATION: The Supreme Court has recognized the government’s broad authority over immigration policy, but so far has maintained that the constitutional right to habeas corpus must be protected. 

HAROLD HONGJU KOH: I think law is one way in which we can translate notions that are in our Constitution and make them real. It’s something that allows justice in this country to advance.

(END)