Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

To: GOPcapitalist
4CJ has posted the same quote from Milligan several times, with the same result. It does not apply to a situation in a war zone. Milligan was a citizen of Indiana and the United States.

The operative passage from the decision is this: "But it is said that the jurisdiction is complete under the 'laws and usages of war.' It can serve no useful purpose to inquire what those laws and usages are, whence they originated, where found, and on whom they operate; they can never be applied to citizens in states which have upheld the authority of the government, and where the courts are open and their process unobstructed."

Plainly, in areas that did not uphold the authority of the federal government, were in a war zone, and had no operating civil courts, such as Tennessee and those areas that purported to secede; the "laws and usages of war" do apply.

quod erat demonstrandum

1,378 posted on 09/18/2004 12:21:30 AM PDT by capitan_refugio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1377 | View Replies ]


To: capitan_refugio
It does not apply to a situation in a war zone.

Exactly what don't you understand about "at all times and under all circumstances," capitan? There is no qualifier there of any form. No "war zone" exception. No "doctrine of necessity" exception. Nothing. The Constitution is SUPREME over all other authorities, civil or military, and none has the right to shun so much as one word of its text on the whims of convenience.

1,380 posted on 09/18/2004 12:25:03 AM PDT by GOPcapitalist ("Can Lincoln expect to subjugate a people thus resolved? No!" - Sam Houston, 3/1863)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1378 | View Replies ]

To: capitan_refugio
"But it is said that the jurisdiction is complete under the 'laws and usages of war.' It can serve no useful purpose to inquire what those laws and usages are, whence they originated, where found, and on whom they operate; they can never be applied to citizens in states which have upheld the authority of the government, and where the courts are open and their process unobstructed."

Nice try, but that part of the case applies to the matter of military versus civil trials of the accused, NOT to whether the Constitution itself applies or not. The Constitution ALWAYS applies "at all times and under all circumstances" period.

1,381 posted on 09/18/2004 12:28:22 AM PDT by GOPcapitalist ("Can Lincoln expect to subjugate a people thus resolved? No!" - Sam Houston, 3/1863)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1378 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson