Explaining Law 101 to JJ

Habeas corpus is the right to have the lawfulness of one’s detention tested before a judge. It is enshrined in the Suspension Clause (Art. I, Sec. 9) of the Constitution — the compact between the American people and the government they created — in order to protect Americans from arbitrary arrest and adhesive conditions of confinement. As a judicial remedy, it extends only where the federal courts have jurisdiction. Thus, as Justice Scalia elaborated (joined in dissent by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito), habeas has never been thought to extend to the benefit of aliens outside the United States — much less those who are at war with the United States, and less still those who wage such a war by mass-murdering civilians, using women and children as human shields, and perpetrating other depravities that flout the laws of civilized warfare. Ah, mais non, mais non, says JJ -- we must bow to the ACLU on this. Whatever, dude.