May 20th, 2025. Today was a rough day for administration officials on Capitol Hill as Senate

committees held hearings on the 26 budget requests for the Department of Homeland Security,

the Department of Health and Human Services,

and the Department of State. The Senate Finance Committee also held a hearing for Trump's nominee

to be Commissioner of Internal Revenue, former Missouri Representative William or Billy Long.

Democrats came prepared and demanded answers that the department secretaries and nominee were

either unable or unwilling to give. Secretary of Homeland Security, Christy Noem, was testifying

before the Senate Homeland Security and governmental affairs committee about the Department of Homeland

Security's budget

for fiscal year 2026. When Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat of New Hampshire, asked her to define

habeas corpus, Nome's response indicated she has no understanding of the nation's fundamental law.

habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from the

country, Nome said. Hasson corrected her.

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. Nome's habit in these hearings is simply to ignore questions

and to attack, and she tried that with Hassan, suggesting that the president has the right to suspend habeas corpus if circumstances

require it. Her position echoes that of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller,

with whom she appears to be working to render immigrants to prisons in third world countries.

But it is dead wrong. The Constitution permits Congress to suspend habeas corpus,

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