Name _____________________ Date_______________________
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Does the president have the power to suspend
Habeas Corpus during times of invasion or rebellion? What would happen if the Executive Branch consistently refused to
enforce or obey judicial decisions? Do special emergency situations ever
justify a president in ignoring or violating the constitutional rule of law? |
In May of 1861 the Supreme Court was not in ___________. Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney, was working as a ___________federal judge when he was
presented with his most famous ___________ever
(except, of course, for the ___________Dred
Scot Decision of 1854). This was the
case of Ex Parte Merryman.
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circuit session case infamous |
John Merryman was a prominent ___________of the state of Maryland who had been
arrested by Federal troops and ___________in
the famous Fort McHenry along with many other Marylanders – including some
members of the state ___________. Merryman had been arrested for ___________the presence of Federal troops
in Maryland and for publicly ___________resistance
to those troops. The troops were in
Maryland to protect the Northern approach to Washington DC and to ___________the state of Maryland from
seceding and joining the ___________. Fort Sumter had fallen the ___________before and the Civil War had
begun.
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advocating month imprisoned resisting rebellion citizen legislature prevent |
After ___________mobs had attacked Federal troops and ___________with
fatalities on both sides, the
Federal president, Abraham Lincoln, ___________Habeas Corpus and had
authorized Union Generals to round up potential ___________in Maryland. Roger B. Taney heard arguments on behalf of John Merryman, and
decided that Lincoln’s actions were neither justified or ___________. Taney ordered that Merryman be presented to the ___________to hear the charges against
him. He backed up his order with legal
and practical ___________. First, Taney ruled that only the Congress
had the ___________to
suspend Habeas Corpus. Most
constitutional scholars would agree with Taney because the provision that
allows Habeas Corpus to be suspended is included in Article 1
which is all about the ___________. Taney further argued that suspending Habeas
Corpus is a power that was never legally ___________even to the ___________of England. He went on to say that if Lincoln could do this then, “the
people of the United States are no longer living under a ___________of laws, but every citizen holds life,
liberty and ___________at the will and pleasure of the army officer
in whose military district he may happen to be found.”
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Congress suspended arguments property
legal Baltimore government Kings power militia rebels court granted |
Lincoln never obeyed Taney’s___________ . In ___________the
court order he was following a precedent set by President Andrew Jackson who
had refused to ___________the
Supreme Court’s decision in “The Cherokee Nation v. Georgia” which would have
prevented the ___________Indian
Removals and the famous “Trail of Tears.”
Lincoln went on to suspend Habeas Corpus several ___________times even though other
Federal Courts continued to ___________against
him. Congress did not weigh in on the
matter until they ___________his
actions in 1863 (two years later).
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tragic authorized ignoring order rule additional enforce |
Lincoln’s ___________was “Are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and
the government itself go to ___________, lest that one be violated?” By this he meant that if ___________were allowed to go free, the
whole ___________of
laws would fall apart. He was claiming
a military necessity to arrest rebels under his war powers as ___________in chief.
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government pieces commander
argument rebels |