On Thursday, the New York Historical Society is hosting a reenactment of Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866). Justice Antonin Scalia is presiding. Apparently he is presiding alone, so it's not clear if he is reenacting Chief Justice Chase, opinion author Justice Davis, or a composite of the whole bench.
Lambdin Milligan was an American citizen and a civilian, yet he was convicted of treason by a military tribunal in the waning days of the Civil War. The Supreme Court granted a writ of habeas corpus on the only ground that habeas could be issued postconviction in those days -- that the committing court had no jurisdiction. There is a curious, if morbid, mootness discussion on page 118, involving an assertion that Milligan had already been hanged. In fact, according to the Wikipedia entry, President Johnson had commuted the sentence two days before the execution date.
Sounds like a fun evening for those of you in New York.
Lambdin Milligan was an American citizen and a civilian, yet he was convicted of treason by a military tribunal in the waning days of the Civil War. The Supreme Court granted a writ of habeas corpus on the only ground that habeas could be issued postconviction in those days -- that the committing court had no jurisdiction. There is a curious, if morbid, mootness discussion on page 118, involving an assertion that Milligan had already been hanged. In fact, according to the Wikipedia entry, President Johnson had commuted the sentence two days before the execution date.
Sounds like a fun evening for those of you in New York.
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