Chapter 248: HABEAS CORPUS AND PERSONAL LIBERTY. If you want to challenge a federal judgment that imposed a sentence to be served in the future, you should file a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 in the federal.Habeas Corpus is a Latin word meaning which literally means 'to have the body of'. Translated from Latin it means "show me the body. According to the Ninth Cir cuit, they unconstitutionally suspend the writ of habeas corpus and violate asylum seekers' right to due process. We. The term writ refers to a formal, legal document that orders a person or entity to perform or to cease performing a specific action or deed. "Habeas corpus" is a writ utilized to bring a person before a court, most frequently to ensure that a person' s imprisonment or detention is not illegal. This new Sixth Edition starts a second century for Black's Law. Dictionary-the standard authority for legal definitions since 1891. Habeas Corpus which literally means "to produce the body" is a protection against illegal and arbitrary detention of a person.