New Looks At An Ancient Writ: Habeas Corpus Reexamined

The traditional characterization of the writ of habeas corpus as an original ... civil remedy for the enforcement of the right to personal liberty, rather than as a stage of the state criminal proceedings or as an appeal therefrom . . . cannot be permitted to defeat the manifest federal policy that federal constitutional rights of personal liberty shall not be denied without the fullest opportunity for plenary federal judicial review.