4 ms·

Only Congress can suspend it?

• rayiner 13y ago
  The Constitution is a ambiguous on that point, because it doesn't explicitly say who has the power to suspend the writ, only the conditions under which it can be suspended. But the fact that it's in Article I, which describes the powers of Congress, suggests that it is Congress who may suspend the writ: http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/1/essays/61/habeas-corpus http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/1/essays/61.... That is also the practice. Abraham Lincoln did suspend the writ unilaterally during the Civil War, but even then he was forced by political pressure to get an act of Congress approving the action.