Definition of "habeas corpus" []

• One of a variety of writs that may be issued to bring a party before a court or judge, having as its function the release of the party from unlawful restraint. (noun)
• The right of a citizen to obtain such a writ. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Some state judges so captiously disputed the constitutionality of various military laws that the writ of habeas corpus had to be suspended.31"
• "His most noted legal argument was the appeal in habeas corpus proceedings on behalf of Vallandigham in"
• "First the omission of a bill of rights providing clearly & without the aid of sophisms for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal & unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land & not by the law of nations."