PoliticsTuesday 05.20.25

“Excuse me, that’s incorrect”: Sen. Maggie Hassan takes DHS Sec. Kristi Noem to task on the definition of habeas corpus.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday faced pushback from Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan after the secretary incorrectly said habeas corpus is the right for President Donald Trump to deport people in the United States illegally.

Noem had been testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about her department’s fiscal year 2026 budget request when she and Hassan clashed over the definition:

Hassan (D-NH): “Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?”

Noem: “Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to —”

“Let me stop you,” Hassan interjected. “That’s incorrect.”

Noem: “President Lincoln used it.”

Habeas corpus is a key due process constitutional right for every American to challenge their arrest before a judge. The right has been in the news lately, after top Trump adviser Stephen Miller told reporters earlier this month that the administration is “looking at” ways to end the right to due process for people not authorized to be in the country.

“The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended at a time of invasion,” Miller said, echoing the administration's argument that the U.S. is being invaded by migrant gangs. “That’s an action we’re actively looking at.”

Those comments came just days after Trump told NBC News that he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

At the hearing, Hassan pounced on Noem’s definition.

“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason,” Hassan said. “Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.”

“Do you support the core protection that habeas corpus provides?” Hassan asked Noem.

Noem: “Yeah, I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.”

Hassan: “It has never been done without approval of Congress. Even Abraham Lincoln got retroactive approval from Congress.”

The U.S. has suspended habeas corpus four times since the Constitution was ratified:

• For the whole country during the Civil War

• In 11 South Carolina counties that were being terrorized by the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction

• In two provinces of the Philippines during a 1905 insurrection

• In Hawaii after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941

Recount Wire

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