They approached the most powerful judge, Lord Mansfield, who was chief judge of the court of King's Bench, and they demanded that he issue a common law writ of habeus corpus on behalf of James Somerset.
Mereka mendatangi hakim yang paling berkuasa, Lord Mansfield, yang merupakan hakim kepala dari pengadilan King's Bench, dan mereka memintanya untuk mengeluarkan surat perintah hukum umum habeus corpus atas nama James Somerset.