26-05-2025
Habeas corpus is line between democracy and tyranny. Trump is blurring that line
If you think you see a train coming down the tracks, it's best to assume it's a train.
And right now, President Donald Trump and his inner circle are charging full speed toward stripping Americans their most basic constitutional rights – with working people, immigrants and communities of color tied to the rails.
Multiple media outlets recently reported that President Donald Trump's Senior Advisor Stephen Miller has suggested the administration is 'actively looking at' suspending habeas corpus – a constitutional right dating back to the Magna Carta of 1215, designed to prevent unlawful detention.
Miller's statement is not a political trial balloon. It is a direct threat to every community and person that has historically borne the brunt of unchecked state power; and now many millions more are at risk.
Habeas Corpus: Can Trump administration suspend right to challenge detention?
Habeas corpus – the right to appear before a judge when detained – was embedded in the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 9. It may only be suspended in times of 'rebellion or invasion.' We are not at war. This is not a rebellion. But Trump wants to give his agents the unchecked ability to round up whomever they want, whenever they want, without charges or court review.
This isn't immigration policy. It's authoritarianism.
The graves of young Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice can be found all over the globe. By rolling back our rights, we dishonor the men and women who have died for the freedom of, ultimately, all of us.
Historically, suspensions of habeas corpus have come during national emergencies: Lincoln invoked it during the Civil War. Roosevelt used it to justify Japanese internment camps during World War II. Both decisions were later criticized for violating fundamental rights. But Trump's proposal comes without crisis or justification – only a desire to wield power without oversight.
Let's be honest: we know who suffers when due process is stripped away. It's not the wealthy or well-connected. It's people in neighborhoods like the ones I grew up in – among Arab, Black, poor white and Hispanic families that have always been overpoliced, surveilled and scapegoated. In Detroit, we've lived through COINTELPRO, mass incarceration, and decades of militarized policing. Our communities don't need a history lesson – we've seen what happens when the government throws out the rulebook.
More opinion: I joked about getting deported. In Trump's America, it's not funny.
Conservative icon and retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig recently called Trump's casual disregard for the Constitution 'perhaps the most important words ever spoken by a president.' Trump said he doesn't know if he's obligated to uphold the Constitution. That's not a gaffe. That's a confession. Luttig warns this is 'constitutional denialism' – the belief that the Constitution doesn't apply if the president doesn't like how the courts interpret it.
Just recently, Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, while testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was asked by Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, to define habeas corpus, saying – incorrectly – "habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."
Under Trump's watch, ICE has detained people with legal status for nothing more than criticizing presidential policies and proposals. We've seen legal residents arrested at courthouses, workplaces, and even outside schools. Ask yourself: what happens if there's no court to turn to? No right to challenge your detention? That's not democracy. That's dictatorship.
As a civil rights attorney, I've defended the wrongfully arrested, the unlawfully detained, and the politically targeted. I've seen how the courts can be both weapon and shield. And I know that the only thing more dangerous than unchecked police power is unchecked police power with no court review at all.
More: Lawyer for U-M protester detained at airport after spring break trip with family
I believe in the power of the Constitution – but only if we recognize and use that power. We cannot sit idly by while a president openly plots to suspend core legal protections. We cannot wait until our neighbors are gone and our rights are stripped before we raise our voices. The train is coming, and it won't stop on its own.
Detroit has always been a city of resistance – against racism, against exploitation, against economic injustice and against authoritarianism. We know how to fight injustice because we've been doing it for generations. From labor strikes to civil rights marches to courtroom battles for justice, our strength is in our refusal to be silent.
So no, suspending habeas corpus is not just some obscure legal issue. It's the line between democracy and tyranny. Between protest and prison. Between freedom and fear.
And if they come for one of us without due process, they can come for all of us.
We must defend habeas corpus – not just as lawyers, but as citizens, as neighbors and as people who know that our rights mean nothing if they don't protect the most vulnerable among us.
Because if we don't fight back now, history will ask why we let it happen again.
Amir Makled is managing partner of the Dearborn-based Hall Makled Law Firm.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Habeas corpus is what stands between democracy and tyranny | Opinion
