The writ of habeas corpus, he contended, has always allowed prisoners to challenge their detention if they claim they are not warriors and are being wrongly held.

NPR: Supreme Court Hears Guantanamo Arguments

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.

ECONOMIST: Civil liberties

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.

FORBES: Jeffrey MacDonald, Innocence, and the Future of Habeas Corpus

But the Bush administration, backed by the federal appeals court in Washington, contends that the detainees have no constitutional rights because they are being held outside the United States, and that even if they do, the Constitution allows suspension of the writ of habeas corpus if an alternative is put into place that is adequate and effective.

NPR: Supreme Court Hears Guantanamo Arguments

In seeking to balance the supposed necessity of finality against the obvious need to protect the innocent from all-too-frequent errors, the case probes the viability and scope of the constitutionally-protected writ of habeas corpus, the procedural device for reviewing otherwise final judgments based on newly-discovered evidence.

FORBES: Jeffrey MacDonald, Innocence, and the Future of Habeas Corpus

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.

FORBES: The San Antonio Four Show the Injustice of Sex Abuse Witch-hunts

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.

NPR: Supreme Court Hears Guantanamo Arguments

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.

CNN: Who is our enemy?