From The Hill newspaper,
Supreme Court takes up Trump’s mandatory detention policy.
This is the habeas corpus issue that I frequently write about. The 5th (TX-LA-MS) and the 8th (ND-SD-NE-MN-IA-MO-AR) circuits have found that the 1996 law (“shall be detained”) is valid and means what it says.
Not that judges in Minnesota (8th circuit) have paid much attention to the matter. I’ve been tracking the 400 or so habeas petitions filed in Minnesota since the 8th circuit last weighed in on the matter. Here are the outcomes,
The federal government, for what I assume are reasons of expediency, haven’t always enforced the letter of the law in all cases. Other circuits have codified these exceptions into their decisions that the law doesn’t apply in most cases, despite the clear and unambiguous language.
Now the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final word, except that the case they took up only involves interpreting the statute itself, not any of the related constitutional questions.
[Note: An earlier version of the post appeared at Power Line.]