The Trump administration infamously doesn’t understand how habeas corpus works, but when cornered are quick to point to Abraham Lincoln suspending the writ during the Civil War, suggesting that Trump could do the same because people with temporary status waiting on citizenship are kinda like Confederate saboteurs. Lincoln ultimately pulled back from the suspension until granted approval by Congress, BUT he did refuse to acquiesce to the Supreme Court when Chief Justice Roger Taney tried to hold the military governor of Maryland in contempt for refusing to turn over the subject of Ex Parte Merryman.
What was that military governor’s Biglaw connection?
Hint: His second cousin, who had graduated from Harvard Law the year before the Merryman episode, would go on to big things in Biglaw.
See the answer on the next page.
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