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Ex parte Merryman
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Ex parte Merryman
Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861) (No. 9487), was a controversial U.S. federal court case during the American Civil War. It was a test of the authority of the President to suspend "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" under the Constitution's Suspension Clause, when Congress was in recess and therefore unavailable to do so itself. More generally, the case raised questions about the ability of the executive branch to decline to enforce judicial decisions when the executive believes them to be erroneous and harmful to its own legal powers.
John Merryman was a prominent planter from Baltimore County, Maryland, who had been arrested at his rural plantation for destroying railroad bridges on which Union troops were traveling. Held prisoner in Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor, he was kept inaccessible to the judiciary and to civilian legal authorities generally. While riding circuit, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that the authority to suspend habeas corpus lay exclusively with Congress.
Taney filed the Merryman decision with the United States Circuit Court for the District of Maryland, but it is unclear if Taney's decision was a circuit court decision. One view, based in part on Taney's handwritten copy of his decision in Merryman, is that Taney heard the habeas action under special authority granted to federal judges by Section 14 of the Judiciary Act of 1789. According to this view, Merryman was an in-chambers opinion. Due to its vague jurisdictional locus and hastened disposition, aspects of the Merryman decision remain contested to this day.
The Executive Branch, including the United States Army, under the authority of the President of the United States as Commander-in-Chief, did not comply with the Merryman decision. Weeks later, Merryman was released on bail without further prosecution. In 1863, Congress passed the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act to cure the constitutional defect.
When a person is detained by police or other authority, a court can issue a writ of habeas corpus, compelling the detaining authority either to show proper cause for detaining the person (e.g., by filing criminal charges) or to release the detainee. The court can remand the prisoner to custody, release him on bail, or release him outright. Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution, which prescribes and limits the power of Congress, includes the Suspension Clause:
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
In April 1861, when combat erupted in the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for the states to provide militia troops to the Federal government to suppress the rebellion. Troops traveling to Washington passed through Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore mobs objecting to a war with the seceding states attacked some of the troop transports on April 19. It seemed possible that Maryland would attempt to block the passage of troops, cutting off Washington and impeding a war against the South.
On April 29, the Maryland legislature voted 53–13 against secession, but it also voted not to reopen rail links with the North. It requested that Lincoln remove the growing number of federal troops from Maryland. At this time the legislature appeared to want to avoid involvement in a war with its southern neighbors. Fearful that the transport of more Union troops through the city and state would provoke more rioting, and possibly in an attempt to enact secession by extralegal means, Mayor George Brown of Baltimore and Governor Thomas Hicks of Maryland asked that no more troops cross Maryland, but Lincoln refused. For the next few weeks, troops were transported to Washington via Annapolis, avoiding Baltimore. Also on April 19, Lincoln asked Attorney General Edward Bates for an opinion on the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
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Ex parte Merryman
Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861) (No. 9487), was a controversial U.S. federal court case during the American Civil War. It was a test of the authority of the President to suspend "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" under the Constitution's Suspension Clause, when Congress was in recess and therefore unavailable to do so itself. More generally, the case raised questions about the ability of the executive branch to decline to enforce judicial decisions when the executive believes them to be erroneous and harmful to its own legal powers.
John Merryman was a prominent planter from Baltimore County, Maryland, who had been arrested at his rural plantation for destroying railroad bridges on which Union troops were traveling. Held prisoner in Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor, he was kept inaccessible to the judiciary and to civilian legal authorities generally. While riding circuit, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled that the authority to suspend habeas corpus lay exclusively with Congress.
Taney filed the Merryman decision with the United States Circuit Court for the District of Maryland, but it is unclear if Taney's decision was a circuit court decision. One view, based in part on Taney's handwritten copy of his decision in Merryman, is that Taney heard the habeas action under special authority granted to federal judges by Section 14 of the Judiciary Act of 1789. According to this view, Merryman was an in-chambers opinion. Due to its vague jurisdictional locus and hastened disposition, aspects of the Merryman decision remain contested to this day.
The Executive Branch, including the United States Army, under the authority of the President of the United States as Commander-in-Chief, did not comply with the Merryman decision. Weeks later, Merryman was released on bail without further prosecution. In 1863, Congress passed the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act to cure the constitutional defect.
When a person is detained by police or other authority, a court can issue a writ of habeas corpus, compelling the detaining authority either to show proper cause for detaining the person (e.g., by filing criminal charges) or to release the detainee. The court can remand the prisoner to custody, release him on bail, or release him outright. Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution, which prescribes and limits the power of Congress, includes the Suspension Clause:
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.
In April 1861, when combat erupted in the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called for the states to provide militia troops to the Federal government to suppress the rebellion. Troops traveling to Washington passed through Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore mobs objecting to a war with the seceding states attacked some of the troop transports on April 19. It seemed possible that Maryland would attempt to block the passage of troops, cutting off Washington and impeding a war against the South.
On April 29, the Maryland legislature voted 53–13 against secession, but it also voted not to reopen rail links with the North. It requested that Lincoln remove the growing number of federal troops from Maryland. At this time the legislature appeared to want to avoid involvement in a war with its southern neighbors. Fearful that the transport of more Union troops through the city and state would provoke more rioting, and possibly in an attempt to enact secession by extralegal means, Mayor George Brown of Baltimore and Governor Thomas Hicks of Maryland asked that no more troops cross Maryland, but Lincoln refused. For the next few weeks, troops were transported to Washington via Annapolis, avoiding Baltimore. Also on April 19, Lincoln asked Attorney General Edward Bates for an opinion on the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
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