[Non-Sequitur]

Doesn't sound ex parte to me.

I'm sorry to hear that. Let's alert the legal profession and have them rewrite the definitions in the law dictionaries. Apparently they have gotten it wrong all these many years.

[aristeides]

I find, reading the opinion, that the attorney general made no submission to Taney's court, arguing that he did not have to. So Taney's decision was no more ex parte than decisions of courts are today when one party forfeits the case by failing to appear.