When New York State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe issued a writ of habeas corpus regarding chimpanzees Hercules and Leo on Monday, the animal rights group that filed the lawsuit cheered, arguing that Jaffe had "implicitly determined that Hercules and Leo are 'persons.'" A habeas corpus ("you may have the body" in Latin) order typically requires a detainee to be present in court to determine the legal justification for detention.
That joy was tempered a bit when Jaffe changed the language of her ruling on Tuesday, in response to widespread misunderstanding, striking the habeas corpus language and emphasizing that she is merely compelling the chimps' caretakers, State University of New York at Stony Brook, to appear in court May 6 to provide a legal rationale for keeping the animals locked up.
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