The issue in Merryman though was that his power of CoC did not encompass that of suspending habeas corpus. The court ruled against him on this but he ignored it.
Its also interesting to note that it was a US Circuit court rather than the US Supreme court that ruled on the Merryman case.
Not really considering the arrangement of our judicial system. Cases must work through the court process before reaching the supreme court. It reached the federal circuit court level in Merryman, where the case was ruled against The Lincoln. He could have appealed it to the supreme court or simply abided by it. Instead he chose neither and ignored it. If a president simply ignored a federal court ruling against him in any other time, there's a strong possibility he would be brought up on charges for impeachment, and with good reason.
btw what was the charge brought against Merryman?
That's the issue - he was held without being charged. Since he was imprisoned without charges, he sought a writ of habeas corpus from the court to have those charges specified. Taney initiated procedings to identify that writ as his court was tasked to do under the federal laws establishing the judicial system. When the court's marshall was refused due to The Lincoln's suspension of the writ, Taney was left to rule on the constitutionality of that suspension.
I'm not sure I follow. The case was in US Curcuit court, right? How did Taney rule on a constitutional matter without having the matter before the US Supreme court?
-btw what did Merryman do to get thrown in jail on a suspended writ of habeaus corpus?