As the South was in a state of insurrection, Lincoln exercised his authority to suspend habeas corpus in that situation, arresting and detaining thousands of suspected secessionists without their trials.

George William Brown, the Mayor of Baltimore, and other suspect Maryland politicians were arrested and imprisoned, without a warrant, as Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus.

John Merryman, a leader in the secessionist group in Maryland, petitioned Chief Justice Roger B. Taney to issue a writ of habeas corpus, saying holding Merryman without a hearing was unlawful.

He expanded his war powers, and imposed a blockade on all the Confederate shipping ports, disbursed funds before appropriation by Congress, and after suspending habeas corpus, arrested and imprisoned thousands of suspected Confederate sympathizers.

The mid-term elections in 1862 brought the Republicans severe losses due to sharp disfavor with the administration over its failure to deliver a speedy end to the war, as well as rising inflation, new high taxes, rumors of corruption, the suspension of habeas corpus, the military draft law, and fears that freed slaves would undermine the labor market.

For example, a criminal defendant may be convicted in state court, and lose on " direct appeal " to higher state appellate courts, and if unsuccessful, mount a " collateral " action such as filing for a writ of habeas corpus in the federal courts.

* Writ of habeas corpus

Following this ruling, Alford petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, which upheld the initial ruling, and subsequently to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit which ruled that Alford's plea was not voluntary, because it was made under fear of the death penalty.

* 1861 – President of the United States Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

The most important single article of the Magna Carta, related to " habeas corpus ", provided that the king was not permitted to imprison, outlaw, exile or kill anyone at a whim — there must be due process of law first.

British traditions such as the monarchy were rejected by the U. S. Constitution, but many English common law traditions such as habeas corpus, jury trials, and various other civil liberties were adopted in the United States.

The Parliament of England had its roots in the restrictions on the power of kings written into Magna Carta, which explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free or fettered – and implicitly supported what became English writ of habeas corpus, safeguarding individual freedom against unlawful imprisonment with right to appeal.

Unedited interviews in which the prosecution's witnesses systematically contradicted themselves were used as testimony in Adams's 1986 habeas corpus hearing to determine if he would receive a new trial.

Although Adams was finally found innocent after years of being processed by the legal system, the judge in the habeas corpus hearing officially stated that, " much could be said about those videotape interviews, but nothing that would have any bearing on the matter before this court.

Although there is no writ of habeas corpus or bail, the maximum period of pre-trial detention has been reduced to four days.

Grant used their provisions vigorously, suspending habeas corpus in South Carolina and sending troops there and into other states ; under his leadership over 5, 000 arrests were made and the Ku Klux Klan received a serious blow.

Reforms included new laws of habeas corpus and amparo ( court-ordered protection ), the creation of a legislative human rights committee, and the establishment in 1987 of the Office of Human Rights Ombudsman.

The legal right to apply for a habeas corpus is also called by the same name.

A writ of habeas corpus, also known as the Great Writ, is a summons with the force of a court order ; it is addressed to the custodian ( a prison official for example ) and demands that a prisoner be taken before the court, and that the custodian present proof of authority, allowing the court to determine whether the custodian has lawful authority to detain the person.

The prisoner, or another person acting on his or her behalf, may petition the court, or a judge, for a writ of habeas corpus.

Most civil law jurisdictions provide a similar remedy for those unlawfully detained, but this is not always called " habeas corpus ".

So if an imposition such as internment without trial is permitted by the law then habeas corpus may not be a useful remedy.

The right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus has nonetheless long been celebrated as the most efficient safeguard of the liberty of the subject.

The writ of habeas corpus is one of what are called the " extraordinary ", " common law ", or " prerogative writs ", which were historically issued by the English courts in the name of the monarch to control inferior courts and public authorities within the kingdom.

The writ is referred to in full in legal texts as habeas corpus ad subjiciendum or more rarely ad subjiciendum et recipiendum.

A previous law ( the Habeas Corpus Act 1640 ) had been passed forty years earlier to overturn a ruling that the command of the King was a sufficient answer to a petition of habeas corpus.

However, as habeas corpus is only a procedural device to examine the lawfulness of a prisoner's detention, so long as the detention is in accordance with an Act of Parliament, the petition for habeas corpus is unsuccessful.

Several cases have ruled that persons found not guilty by reason of insanity may not withdraw the defense in a habeas petition to pursue an alternative.

Between 1882 and 1905, about 10, 000 Chinese appealed against negative immigration decisions to federal court, usually via a petition for habeas corpus.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said of the Crown that it " links us all together with the majestic past that takes us back to the Tudors, the Plantagenets, the Magna Carta, habeas corpus, petition of rights, and English common law.

It included a limited unentrenched bill of rights, with freedom of religion, the principle of habeas corpus, the right of petition and freedom of the press as its main points.

They appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus, but on May 30, 1859, their petition was denied.

<......> The fact that no status determination had taken place according to the Third Geneva Convention was sufficient reason for a judge from the District Court of Columbia dealing with a habeas petition, to stay proceedings before a military commission.

Five of the prisoners filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that they should not be held indefinitely without trial or bail.

Hone Heke Ngapua had previously sent a telegraph to Hone Toia, advising him to disband his people, withdraw peacefully and to petition parliament, this was seen as a wise move by Heke considering such acts as the 1863 Suppression of Rebellion Act which suspended habeas corpus and introduced martial law into disturbed districts and the New Zealand Settlements Act which provided for the punitive confiscation of ' rebel natives ' land.

In late 2009, Luster filed a petition for habeas corpus as the final possibility of getting his case reviewed by another court on appeal.

Because Padilla was being detained without any criminal charges being formally made against him, he, through his lawyer, made a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, naming then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as the respondent to this petition.

However, the court further declared that President Bush had constitutional and statutory authority to designate and detain American citizens as " enemy combatants " and that Padilla was entitled to challenge his " enemy combatant " designation and detention in the course of his habeas corpus petition, although release was denied.

# Padilla's lawyer is a proper " next friend " to sign and file the habeas corpus petition on Padilla's behalf because she, as a member of the bar, had a professional duty to defend her client's interests.

# Secretary Rumsfeld can be named as the respondent to Padilla's habeas corpus petition, even though it is South Carolina's Commander Marr who had immediate physical custody of Padilla, because there have been past cases where national-level officials have been named as respondents to such petitions.

# The Court held that the petition was incorrect in naming the secretary of defense as the respondent instead of the commanding officer of the naval brig who was Padilla's actual custodian for habeas corpus purposes.

Three years later, Carter's attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court.

Ex parte McCardle has become revived recently because Congress repealed the statute that was being used by the detainees in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to petition for habeas corpus.

Based on this, Ex parte McCardle may only mean that Congress can regulate which method is used to petition for habeas as long as some " path " stays open.