[Lurker]

I doubt Lincoln saw an end of the Civil War when he suspended habeas corpus.

Which the SCOTUS promptly and correctly bitch slapped Lincoln for doing. Only Congress has the authority to suspend Habeus Corpus.

L

[okie01]

Which the SCOTUS promptly and correctly bitch slapped Lincoln for doing. Only Congress has the authority to suspend Habeus Corpus.

Unless somebody ignores the SCOTUS. As you well know, there is more to this story...

The military refused to follow the writ. Justice Taney, in Ex parte MERRYMAN, then ruled the suspension of habeas corpus unconstitutional because the writ could not be suspended without an Act of Congress. President Lincoln and the military ignored Justice Taney's ruling.

Finally, in 1866, after the war, the Supreme Court officially restored habeas corpus in Ex-parte Milligan, ruling that military trials in areas where the civil courts were capable of functioning were illegal.

So, fighting a Civil War without a definable end, coupled with civil unrest on the part of the Copperhead Democrats, Lincoln suspended habeas corpus. Surely, he had good reason -- as he saw it. And it stayed suspended until the war had, in fact, reached an end.

Proving once again: the courts are no place to fight a war.