Noem can't define habeas corpus. For DHS head that's not just stupid, it's scary. | Opinion
It's not too much to ask that a government official in a position to round people up and detain them should have a passing knowledge of this fundamental right.
Noted puppy executioner Kristi Noem, the current head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is a walking, babbling example of why putting ignorant and unqualified people in charge of the government might not have been America’s best idea.
During a May 20 Senate hearing, Noem was asked a remarkably simple question by Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan: “What is habeas corpus?”
Noem responded: “Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.”
That is what any decent high-school civic teacher would call “wrong.” In fact, it is remarkably wrong. It is the kind of thing that makes "Saturday Night Live" skit writers' lives easy, and I assume it's exactly what Republicans want to hear, since they had sufficient brain rot to confirm Noem in the first place.
As Homeland Security head, Kristi Noem should know what habeas corpus is
Hassan had to senator-splain this basic legal right to Noem, correctly saying: “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.”
I don’t think it’s too much to ask that a government official in a position to “protect the homeland” by potentially rounding people up and detaining them should have at least a passing knowledge of this fundamental right.
But Noem was transparently clueless.
Noem's inexcusable cluelessness was on full, vivid display
She continued to let words fall out of her mouth, saying, dumbly, “President Lincoln used it” – the president doesn’t “use” habeas corpus – and then: “I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.”
WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?
Article 1 of the Constitution clearly states that only Congress has the right to suspend habeas corpus, and that’s only “when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”
People in positions of governmental power should be ... you know ... smart
This is not a class Noem can try to B.S. her way through because she forgot to do the reading. This is the U.S. Senate, and she’s a high-ranking government official in a position of considerable power.
She is also, as evidenced by this insipid display of incomprehension, in no way qualified to hold that high-ranking position or have any kind of power.
Noem's ignorance reflects the Trump administration – a ship of fools
Noem’s doofus dance in the Senate hearing is especially troubling when you consider the Trump administration has made clear it wants to suspend habeas corpus to grease the wheels of its reckless deportations.
Which begs the question: How can the dumbest administration in American history suspend something its people can’t even define?
I’m sure they’ll stumble into a way to pull it off.
And we’ll again be reminded: Ignorant fools who think they’re smart are the most dangerous fools of all.
Follow Paste BN columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk