[nolu chan]

The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Marshall still ruled, "If at any time the public safety should require the suspension of the powers vested by this act in the courts of the United States, it is for the legislature to say so. That question depends on political considerations, on which the legislature is to decide."
-- Ex Parte Bollman and Swartwout, United States Supreme Court, 1807

[capitan_refugio]

Bollman was about Burr's western conspiracy to form a new country. Jefferson had asked Congress to suspend habeas, but they chose not to. Marshall's quotation is obiter dicta.

But beyond that, there is no applicability of the circumstances of the Bollman case to the situation in the Spring of 1861. Lincoln was faced with an armed insurrection and Congress was not in session. Marshall could not have foreseen such an exigency, and Lincoln's paramount duty was not to wait for Congress to re-assemble.