I occasionally pursue old opinions for fun. This Supreme Court opinion -- Ex Parte Milligan -- was published exactly 160 years ago, to the day, on April 3, 1866.
The opinion was incredibly prescient. So on its anniversary, I thought I'd mention it briefly.
In 1864, the United States arrested Lambdin Milligan, an Indiana lawyer who was an outspoken opponent of the Civil War. Even though Milligan was a civilian, the U.S. tried him before a military commission for alleged offenses against the Union (basically, opposing the war, alongside an alleged connection to a cache of weapons) and sentenced him to hang.
Milligan brought a habeas petition claiming that it was illegal to try him before a military commission instead of before a civilian jury. The Supreme Court agreed. In freeing Milligan, the Court wrote these words, which seem incredibly timely on this day 160 years later. So I thought I'd share them with you:
"The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances . . . . This nation, as experience has proved, cannot always remain at peace, and has no right to expect that it will always have wise and humane rulers, sincerely attached to the principles of the Constitution. Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln . . . ."
Yep. Indeed.
