Democratic Senator Totally Schools Kristi Noem Over This Key Constitutional Right

“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 —,” declared Noem during her testimony at a Senate committee hearing.

The statement from Noem — which would’ve been wrong on a high school civics exam — saw her doubling down on Trump administration claims that the president can suspend the right, which is enshrined in the first article of the Constitution.

Officials like senior White House aide Stephen Miller have entertained suspending habeas corpus for detained migrants to clear the way of potential roadblocks to the president’s deportation efforts.

On Tuesday, a stunned Hassan swiftly checked Noem over her claim, “Excuse me, that’s incorrect.”

Hassan, who worked as a lawyer before going into politics, later continued, “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.”

“Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea,” she continued.

Experts have countered Noem’s claim by arguing that only Congress, not the president, has the power to suspend habeas corpus.

Habeas corpus has been suspended on four occasions in U.S. history, including during the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln suspended it several times before later getting what Hassan referred to as “retroactive approval” from Congress.