Habeas Corpus Act

Habeas Corpus Act (1863).In the early months of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the border states and subsequently throughout the North. A writ of habeas corpus orders a person detaining another, the petitioner, to bring that person before a judge, who can determine the lawfulness of the detention. The suspension of this privilege allowed the government to take into custody persons suspected of disloyal activities and hold them until they no longer posed a threat to the Union. In response to complaints about arbitrary arrests and doubts about the president's authority to suspend the writ, Congress enacted the Habeas Corpus Act in March 1863. The act legitimized Lincoln's suspensions of habeas corpus and approved future suspensions for the duration of the war. It also sharply limited the time a prisoner could be held without trial by requiring that civilians arrested and detained by the military be released if grand juries failed to indict them. Finally, the act afforded protection to federal officials who were sued in state court for arresting and detaining civilians and for acts performed while enforcing federal conscription and emancipation policies. It authorized removal of these suits to federal courts (where defendants were less likely to face hostile judges and juries) and stipulated that any order made under authority of the president was a defense against such suits.
[See also Civil Liberties and War; Commander in Chief, President as; Merryman, Ex Parte; Milligan, Ex Parte.]

Bibliography

James G. Randall , Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln, 1926.
Harold M. Hyman and and William M. Wiecek , Equal Justice Under Law: Constitutional Development, 1835–1875, 1982.

Mary J. Farmer