“Along with a declaring martial law, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the suspension of the constitutionally protected right to writs of habeas corpus in 1861, shortly after the start of the American Civil War. At the time, the suspension applied only in Maryland and parts of the Midwestern states.
In response to the arrest of Maryland secessionist John Merryman by Union troops, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Roger B. Taney defied Lincoln’s order and issued a writ of habeas corpus demanding that the U.S. Military bring Merryman before the Supreme Court. When Lincoln and the military refused to honor the writ, Chief Justice Taney in Ex-parte MERRYMAN declared Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional. Lincoln and the military ignored Taney’s ruling.”
He later expanded it to all of the states.
Under Martial Law, the President becomes the law, so yeah, he was a dictator.
A single justice can not rule for the entire court. Taney ruled on Merriman as a district circuit judge, not as a member of the Supreme Court. The full court never heard the Merriman case because it was moot by the time they came back into session.
But by your reply, can we assume you support civilian trials for Al Quida terrorists as opposed to military tribunals? Does habeas corpus apply to terrorists seeking to destroy the nation?
Read Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution. Suspending habeas corpus is CONSTITUTIONAL under certain circumstances; IOW, it is NOT protected.
What you, of course, fail to mention is that Merryman had been recruiting men for the Confederate army in Maryland. Taney also hated Lincoln (he had hated him even before he was elected president), so it makes sense that he would make a ruling that would hurt lincoln