I would disagree with that statement. Lincoln did the best he could to uphold the Constitution as he understood it. His actions were reviewed by the Supreme Court on many occasions during the course of the rebellion and I'm not aware of any of those decisions that he ignored.
ROTFL! Suspending the writ of habeas corpus, promising appropriations of monies, calling forth massive armies, implementing naval blockades (an act of war), having the miltary arrest those that spoke out against him, shutting down newspapers that dared to question his policies, etc, &c, ad naseum. With that understanding of the Constitution, Lincoln was dumber than a rock.
His actions were reviewed by the Supreme Court on many occasions during the course of the rebellion and I'm not aware of any of those decisions that he ignored.
The decision by Chief Justice Taney in ex parte Merryman was an in-chambers decision by the Chief Justice, with the decision to be forwarded to the Maryland Circuit Court ['I shall, therefore, order all the proceedings in this case, with my opinion, to be filed and recorded in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Maryland.'] In that decision - which Lincoln failed to abide by - the Chief Justice wrote that 'the president has exercised a power which he does not possess under the Constitution.' And 9 justices of the Supreme Court agreed in ex parte Milligan held that
'The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government.'