In Re Neagle

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IN RE NEAGLE,

IN RE NEAGLE, 135 U.S. 1 (1890), a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court asserted federal supremacy over state law. President Benjamin Harrison had directed David Neagle, a deputy U.S. marshal, to protect Justice Stephen J. Field of the Supreme Court against a death threat. Neagle shot and killed would-be assassin David S. Terry as Terry made a murderous assault on Field in California. Arrested by state authorities and charged with murder, Neagle was brought before the federal circuit court on a writ of habeas corpus and released on the ground that he was being held in custody for "an act done in pursuance of a law of the United States." His release was upheld by the Supreme Court.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kens, Paul. Justice Stephen Field: Shaping Liberty from the Gold Rush to the Gilded Age. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1997.

P. OrmanRay/a. r.

See alsoAssassinations and Political Violence, Other ; Civil Service ; Gilded Age ; Supreme Court .