The Great Writ

This question has haunted America since October of 1864, when an Indiana lawyer named Lambdin P. Milligan was arrested and sentenced to hang by a military tribunal2. The legal tool at the heart of that struggle was the writ of habeas corpus, a principle so foundational it is often invisible, until a crisis thrusts it into the light3.

The Great Writ: A Nation's Struggle with Liberty and Power is a gripping historical and legal narrative that argues the story of habeas corpus is the story of America's enduring conflict between national security and individual liberty4. Independent Researcher Kerry Khan takes readers on a journey through the nation's greatest crises, revealing a cyclical pattern of fear, executive overreach, and the judiciary's often-belated struggle to reclaim the rule of law5.

From its English origins and its establishment in the U.S. Constitution, the book dives into the writ's near-collapse during the Civil War, its timid application during the Japanese-American internment of World War II, and its dramatic reassertion in the 21st-century showdown over the Guantanamo Bay detention camp 6.

While many books cover these eras,

The Great Writ is the first to use the single, powerful thread of habeas corpus to connect them, offering a fresh and insightful perspective that makes a complex legal history compelling and accessible for a broad audience 7. It is a timely and urgent work that shows how the legal battles of the past directly inform the pressing constitutional questions of our time8.