habeas corpus

plural habeas corpora · plural habeas corpuses

1. lawA writ ordering that a person be brought before a court or a judge, most frequently used to ensure that a person's imprisonment, detention, or commitment is legal.

   While Trump has not explicitly mentioned habeas corpus in public, it’s what he was referencing last month when he commented on steps he could take to combat nationwide injunctions against his actions on deportations, according to one of the people familiar with the talks.

   2025 May 9, Kaitlan Collins, Samantha Waldenberg and Tierney Sneed, “Trump involved in discussions over suspending habeas corpus, sources say”, in CNN, archived from the original on 13 May 2025

   Synonyms: writ of habeas corpus

present singular third person habeas corpuses · participle present habeas corpusing · participle past habeas corpused · past habeas corpused

1. informaltransitivelawTo apply the legal principle of habeas corpus to an individual or situation.

   Hawley […] particularly desired, judging by his actions, to put polygamists out of existence, at the same time very mercifully habeas corpused all the prostitutes and their supporters[.]

   1873 August 12, “The Fate of Judges and All Others Who Work Against Zion”, in The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star

   1 more example

   He saw that according to the fable typed on its lily white face one, John Grimaldi of Brooklyn, was summoned, advised, entreated, requested, ordered, corpus delictied, habeas corpused and generally invited to appear in said court[.]

   1918, Frazier Hunt, “Pegging Away”, in Blown by the Draft