The head of the Department of Homeland Security would ideally be familiar with the concept.
Several top members of the Trump administration have been evading constraints on their lawless actions by playing a clever game of feigned ignorance as to the plain requirements of the Constitution and a series of adverse court rulings.
Then there’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose ignorance appears to be utterly genuine.
Appearing before a Senate hearing this morning, Noem was asked by Senator Maggie Hassan, “What is habeas corpus?” Noem, whose hearing prep clearly did not anticipate any questions with Latin terms in them, replied, “Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to—”
At this point, Hassan interjected to explain that habeas corpus is, in fact, “the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people.” In other words, it’s the opposite of what Noem said. It’s not a right the president possesses, but a right the people possess against the president.
The second Trump era has produced two broad castes of post-liberal spokespeople. The first category is the lawyers and other theorists who, in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s flailing first term, set out to reimagine a second Trump presidency that would ruthlessly deploy the power of the state to terrorize the opposition. This category is represented by figures such as Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The administration has sought to leverage its wartime powers into the kind of limitless authority that the Founders directly closed off.
