April 1, 2010 12:40PM # The Great Writ By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE The BBC has put together an interesting documentary on the writ of habeas corpus, a legal concept most people have heard of, but too few understand and appreciate. You can stream it [here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/docarchive#playepisode3). We should not forget that President Bush and the coterie of lawyers around him tried to advance a theory of executive power that would have made the writ of habeas corpus worthless. I hasten to add that President Obama has not really disavowed Bush’s claims and so the danger to the great writ has *not* passed just because Bush has left office. Related video clip of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIFqYVAOosM). Related Cato work [here](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5136), [here](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2632), and [here](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6330). ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).