The Constitution

The writ of habeas corpus was suspended four times in America's history. Haabeas corpus is the leagl concept that a prisoner has the right to challenge the basis of confinement--to demand that government produce a valid reason for detention.


Guantanamo Bay Prison http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/habeas_corpus/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/13scotus.html?ref=habeas_corpus Mississippi did not ratify the 13th Amendment, the one that abolished slavery, until 1995.