During wars and emergencies, Presidents claim extraordinary authority, and the exercise of executive power leads to asserted violations of constitutional rights and other legal norms. As disputes come to court, cries echo from one side that a ruling for the challengers would imperil national security and from the other that courts must hold our nation to the ideals that make its security worth preserving. In the context of war, separation-of-powers issues have most often come before the courts in their habeas corpus jurisdiction. Federman explains the Great Writ of habeas corpus as the procedural mechanism through which courts have insisted that the King, the President or any other executive official cannot impose detention except authorized by law (Federman, 2007). Where the writ runs, courts have the power and responsibility to enforce the most basic requirements of the rule of law, even in wartime.