It is one of the oldest legal protections in the western world — the right to challenge your imprisonment before a judge, habeas corpus. Now habeas corpus is at the center of a constitutional fight over immigration detention playing out in courtrooms across the Midwest, including here in Iowa.
The Midwest Newsroom and The Marshall Project spent months reviewing more than 150 cases in four states, and what they found was striking. Reporters discuss the recent investigation into ICE detention and habeas corpus: who is being held, how they got there and what the courts are doing about it. Then, University of Iowa law professor Kate Melloy Goettel discusses how the legal landscape is shifting and what comes next.
Later, three Iowa State University researchers have built a drone that carries its own water testing lab. They join the program to talk about why that matters for Iowa's nitrate problem.
The Midwest Newsroom is an investigative and enterprise journalism collaboration that includes Iowa Public Radio. The reporting discussed in this show was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system.
Guests:
- Luke Nozicka, senior reporter, Midwest Newsroom and St. Louis Public Radio
- Katie Moore, staff writer, The Marshall Project
- Kate Melloy Goettel, clinical associate professor and director, Federal Impact Litigation Clinic, University of Iowa College of Law
- Jonathan Claussen, professor of mechanical engineering, Iowa State University
- Nathan Neihart, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Iowa State University
- Michelle Soupir, professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, Iowa State University
