Excerpt from Habeas Corpus and Martial Law: A Review of the Opinion of Chief Justice Taney, in the Case of John Merryman

From the concluding part of the opinion, it appears that the Chief Justice not only denies the right of the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and the right of General Cadwalader to decline compliance with the command of the writ requiring him to appear with the prisoner and show the cause of the detention, but he also denies the right of the military authority to make searches, seizures, and arrests without warrant, and he insists that great and fundamental laws, which even Congress itself could not sus pend, have been disregarded and suspended, like the writ of habcas corpus, by a military order, supported by force of arms. We quote this part of the Opinion, as it has an important bearing upon the reasoning of the Chief Justice.

If the arrest might be made by the military authority, without warrant, then it will probably be admitted that the same authority, on making return of the nature of the arrest and detention, may decline to produce the prisoner upon the writ of habeas corpus.

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