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Habeas Corpus: All the Laws but One?
At the start of the war, Confederate sympathizers in Maryland burned bridges and disrupted troop movements around Baltimore, a key transportation point connecting Washington to the North. In response, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which allowed the military to detain suspects rebels and insurgents indefinitely, even though the corts were open. In Ex Parte Merryman (1861), the legality of Lincoln's order came before Chief Justice Robert B. Taney, sitting as a circuit court judge. |