Word Documents Related to the Petition

Note:

The following Word documents are "Read-Only" files. Save the files to your hard drive before attempting to revise or adapt these files for the purposes of filing your own petition. 

The Appendix for the petition (see link on left sidebar) is only available in PDF format. Acrobat Reader is required to view/save PDF files. Download a FREE Reader.

Downloadable Files

• File 1 of 3, Petition: Questions Presented, Table of Contents, Table of Authorities

• File 2 of 3, Petition: Body of Petition

• File 3 of 3, Petition: Judgments, Custodians and Places of Confinement

• Motion for Leave to File Appendix on 8½" x 11" Paper

• Table of Contents (For the Appendix)

U.S. Supreme Court Rules

These are the Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States as revised on July 17, 2007. The amended Rules become effective October 1, 2007, as provided in Rule 48. For previous revisions of the Rules of the Supreme Court see 346 U.S. 949, 388 U.S. 931, 398 U.S. 1013, 445 U.S. 985, 493 U.S. 1099, 515 U.S. 1197, 519 U.S. 1161, 525 U.S. 1189, 537 U.S. 1247, and 544 U.S. 1071.

• Memorandum to Counsel - Revisions to Rules

• Revisions to Rules

• Rules of the Supreme Court (Effective October 1, 2007)

• Order Adopting Revised Rules (Effective July 17, 2007)

For clarification of the rules and additional information, please contact the Clerk of the Court at 202-479-3011.

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The greatest danger from [federal] ambition is in criminal cases ... and the writ of habeas corpus will in the mean time secure the citizen against arbitrary imprisonment, which has been the source of tyranny in all ages... [T]he great instrument of arbitrary power is criminal prosecutions.  By the privileges of the habeas corpus no man can be confined without inquiry; and if it should appear that he has been committed contrary to law, he must be discharged.

— James Iredell, at the North Carolina Convention for the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. Iredell, one of the original Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, was appointed by President George Washington and served from 1790 until his death in 1799.

(In: Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. IV. Elliot. Ayer Company Publishers: 1987. pp. 145, 171.)

[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.

—Alexander Hamilton, the founder of the Federalist Party, was the first delegate chosen for the Constitutional Convention. He took the lead in the successful campaign for the Constitution's ratification in New York (1788) and was appointed by President George Washington to be the first Secretary of the Treasury.

(In: The Federlist Papers, No. 84. C. Rossiter, Ed. Mentor Publishing: 1961. p. 512.)

No citizen shall be imprisoned or otherwise detained by the United States except pursuant to an Act of Congress.

(codified at Title 18, United States Code, Section 4001(a)).