List and explain the rights and liberties outlined in the body of the United States Constitution and in the Bill of Rights.

The Writ of Habeas Corpus

From the outset, the burden of proof is on the government to justify the arrest and detention of a suspect in a crime. Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution guarantees the privilege of a writ of habeas corpus. One of the most serious abuses of governmental power that the Framers sought to prevent was the imprisonment or detention of citizens without an indication of why they were being held. Habeas corpus is a Latin term literally meaning “you have the body.” A writ of habeas corpus is a directive from a court requiring the government to justify the imprisonment of a citizen. Because of the writ of habeas corpus guarantee, an individual cannot be held for more than a short period of time without being formally charged with a crime.

Of the habeas privilege, the Supreme Court has declared that the “government must always be accountable to the judiciary for a man’s imprisonment: if the imprisonment cannot be shown to conform with the fundamental requirements of law, the individual is entitled to his immediate release” (see Fay v. Noia (1963)). Indeed, a large number of criminal conviction appeals are raised under the habeas corpus privilege. Individuals who have been convicted of crimes in spite of their professed innocence or a purportedly flawed trial may demand that the government justify his or her physical confinement. To justify the incarceration, it is often necessary to review the record of the trial that produced the guilty verdict as well as the evidence that was presented. In some cases, a court may conclude that an individual is being wrongfully imprisoned and his or her “immediate release” will be ordered.

Bills of Attainder

A bill of attainder is a legislative act that inflicts a punishment or detriment on a specifically named individual or group of individuals. A commonly cited example is a legislative act that finds an individual guilty of a crime and imposes a penalty on that individual. Such acts are banned by the Constitution because they are not a legislative function. Assessing the guilt of individuals in criminal cases is a function of the judiciary. Moreover, a bill of attainder violates the guarantee of due process because it does not offer the accused the opportunity to defend themselves.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a legislative act need not assign criminal guilt to an individual to be an unconstitutional bill of attainder. In a landmark case, the Court ruled that the Congress violated the Constitution when it singled out, by name, specific State Department employees it did not want paid (see United States v. Lovett).