The question facing the court is whether the detainees have the right to go into the U.S. courts to challenge their detentions, using the constitutionally guaranteed procedure called a writ of habeas corpus.

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Tsarnaev would be represented by counsel who could seek a writ of habeas corpus from the federal courts if what I envision as a reasonably brief period of temporary detention turned into something abusive.

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Reaves prepared for him a state writ of habeas corpus, known as a Great Writ.

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In the federal system, severe restrictions have been imposed on the ancient writ of habeas corpus, a common law doctrine predating the U.S. Constitution by several centuries, which allows the wrongly convicted to attack their trials and verdicts.

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The MacDonald case puts front-and-center the pivotal question of whether the writ of habeas corpus should be available to the convicted, regardless of how many times a defendant has unsuccessfully attacked his conviction in the past.

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Mr Ackerman also analyses the Supreme Court's record since the attacks, which he sees as mixed, especially on the writ of habeas corpus, and he proposes a reasonable post-disaster plan on government continuity.

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After Willingham filed another writ of habeas corpus, this time in federal court, he was granted a temporary stay.

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