'Not gonna cut it': Reporter scoffs at Trump aide's crusade in 'long-simmering' tension
President Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller wants to suspend habeas corpus for migrants, essentially treating them as an invading army not subject to all the typical rights of a person subject to detention — and it's based on flimsy legal reasoning that won't hold up in court, CNN's Paula Reid told anchors Boris Sanchez and Brianna Keilar on Monday.
"Paula, talk to us a little bit about what is being considered here and how much latitude the Trump administration has," said Keilar.
"It's not clear that they actually can do this," said Reid. "Legal scholars agree that, especially over the past several decades, the courts have been clear that only Congress can suspend habeas. But that didn't stop Stephen Miller from saying this on the White House North Lawn last week."
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"Well, the Constitution is clear — and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land — that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion, so to say it's an option we're actively looking at, look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not," said Miller in the clip.
"Okay, so Stephen left out a few key parts of what the Constitution said, and the fact that the founders were really focused on trying to limit any suspension of habeas," said Reid.
While it's true habeas has been suspended in wartime, that was during the Civil War and World War II.
"And here Miller is trying to argue, as they have before, that what's happening with immigration in this country is an invasion. But that is not going to cut it here. You're not going to be able to cut the courts out of the process and not give people the opportunity to appear before a judge."
"Now, the goal here, though, the long-term goal, appears to really be to try to undercut the power of the judiciary," she continued. "We've seen this long simmering tension between the executive and the judiciary branch, and there's this sort of veiled threat that he keeps lifting, which is he's saying, look, if the courts don't do what we think they should do, this will be what we will have to pursue."
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