The writ has its origins in an English common law creation that evolved over four centuries. Today habeas corpus petitions represent collateral attacks on criminal judgments in that they are separate civil legal filings that question the validity of those judgments as a basis for incarceration. Both State and Federal courts have jurisdiction to consider habeas corpus petitions from State prisoners who claim that they are held in custody in violation of the Constitution. The four types of issues currently related to habeas corpus are related to crime control and its political underpinnings; jurisprudential, constitutional, and workload issues; Federal-State considerations; and recent attempts by the U.S. Supreme Court to curtail the right of State prisoners to seek Federal review. The current Supreme Court majority seems clearly inclined to limit the use of the habeas corpus tactic to obtain Federal review. In the future Congress may have a major role in addressing the many issues that habeas corpus presents. Overall, habeas corpus presents broad and basic issues of governmental sovereignty, the administration of criminal justice, constitutional review, the rights of the convicted, political partisanship and issues of race, public attitudes toward the legal system, and public concerns about crime control. Notes, list of cases cited, and 33 references