The name ‘John Suthers’ was vaguely familiar to me. Like, wasn’t he Colorado’s Attorney General at one point? For, like, ten years? And he successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Kansas v. Colorado?
That’s pretty impressive. Beating the entire state of Kansas in a court case.
Now I see where he’s been hired by the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, to argue that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo do not have the right to pursue a habeas corpus petition.
Habeas corpus is mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, as I recall.
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.
From what I can tell from the news reports, Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo are not engaged in rebellion or invasion. But they are, indeed, prisoners at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and might conceivably appreciate a writ of habeas corpus.
The kingdom of Aragon, in what is now Spain, may have been the first to allow prisoners to petition for habeas corpus — asking a judge to rule whether their imprisonment was legal or illegal. This was back in the 11th century. But they called it the right of manifestación.. Maybe because they didn’t speak English?
The English version, habeas corpus, dates from the 12th century and uses Latin words to make it sound more serious and authentic, and also to confuse ordinary people who aren’t lawyers.
I may not have been clear, yet, that Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo are elephants. From their photos, I would judge them to be African elephants. The elephants’ case was argued last week, in front of the Colorado Supreme Court.
It’s not easy being an elephant in America, nowadays. African or otherwise.
In the wild, African elephants generally live in family groups of females and their children, headed by an older female, while a mature male will tend to hang out in a gang of bulls, down by the drinking hole perhaps, and visit the girls when the mood is right.
Elephants have bigger brains than humans, and almost every part of their anatomy is bigger than ours. Their bigger brains suggest that they are actually more intelligent than humans. But they still manage to get captured and put in zoos. Which is sort of like being put in prison without having committed any crime.
That’s where habeas corpus comes in. Americans cannot be kept in prison when they haven’t committed a crime. At least, not legally. (We could say a few things about Guantanamo Bay at this point, but that’s for a different humor column.)
The Nonhuman Rights Project is essentially arguing that the elephants at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo — have the right to a writ of habeas corpus.
In an October 24 article on APNews.com, journalist Colleen Slavin wrote:
The group says the animals, born in the wild in Africa, are showing signs of brain damage because the zoo is essentially a prison for such intelligent and social creatures, known to roam for miles a day. They want the animals released to one of the two accredited elephant sanctuaries in the United States because the group doesn’t think they can live the wild anymore.
The zoo — through their attorney, John Suthers — argues that the five Colorado elephants would not know how to fit in, socially, with a strange herd of elephants at a wildlife sanctuary. But more importantly, attorney Suthers has argued, elephants aren’t human, and thus, don’t have a right to a writ of habeas corpus.
If anyone is going to give these elephants the right to a writ of habeas corpus, it ought to be the Colorado legislature. Not a court of law. Not even the Supreme Court.
I think that’s attorney Suthers’ main argument.
But there are other arguments, such as, if an elephant has the right to a writ of habeas corpus, does that mean that a lion or a tiger also has that right?
How about my cat, Roscoe?
I think Roscoe actually lives with me because he likes it. And I’ve made it clear to him that, whenever he wants to live somewhere else, he’s free to do that. But I’ve told him I would miss him. Not like, guilt tripping or anything like that. Just letting him know how I feel.
Roscoe’s brain is smaller than mine, but I sometimes wonder which of us is more intelligent.
At the Supreme Court hearing, Jake Davis — attorney for the Nonhuman Rights Project — urged the justices to rule that the elephants can pursue a habeas corpus petition, and send the case back to a lower court, which would then consider the petition and decide if the animals should leave the zoo.
I think, when they let the lions and tigers loose, people are going to have second thoughts.