Abraham Lincoln’s Suspension of Habeas Corpus

Memory and Application during the War on Terror

“The suspension of habeas corpus and

indefinite detention of irregulars by the Lincoln Administration, particularly those involving the Supreme Court cases Ex Parte Merryman and Ex Parte Milligan, served as an example for the wartime policy of the Bush Administration in terms of executive supremacy and extra constitutional necessity in wartime. “

Thesis

Suspension of the Writ during the Civil War

Ex Parte Merryman Ex Parte Milligan

Suspension during the War on Terror Connection between Lincoln and Bush

presidencies Hamdi v. Rumsfeld

Structure of Paper

Previous crises but

now challenges of the Civil War

Context: mixed loyalties and tension in Maryland

Extraordinary actions in times of crisis

Executive authority in wartime

Merryman

Seditious Confederate

actions behind Union lines

Court ruling ignored realities of war/reconstruction

Proper executive wartime action vs. vanguard of civil liberties against executive tyranny

Milligan

Bush faced similar

issues as did Lincoln Bush willing to take

drastic actions to defend nation as was Lincoln

Bush and Lincoln

U.S. citizen detained

as a combatant Pragmatism vs.

textualism Executive authority

in detention Wartime necessity

weighed against freedom of citizens

Bush and Hamdi

Lincoln dealt with Merryman and Milligan in a

similar way as Bush dealt with Hamdi Executive Supremacy Necessity in times of crisis

Conclusion