Ex parte Milligan

Ex parte Milligan
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 5, 1866 Decided April 3, 1866
Full case name	Ex parte Lambdin P. Milligan
Citations	71 U.S. 2 (more) 4 Wall. 2; 18 L. Ed. 281; 1866 U.S. LEXIS 861
Prior history	This case came before the Court upon a certificate of division from the judges of the Circuit Court for Indiana, on a petition for discharge from unlawful imprisonment.
Holding
Trying citizens in military courts is unconstitutional when civilian courts are still operating. Trial by military tribunal is only constitutional when there is no power left but the military, and the military may only validly try criminals as long as is absolutely necessary.
Court membership
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase Associate Justices James M. Wayne · Samuel Nelson Robert C. Grier · Nathan Clifford Noah H. Swayne · Samuel F. Miller David Davis · Stephen J. Field
Case opinions
Majority	Davis, joined by Clifford, Field, Grier, Nelson
Concur/dissent	Chase, joined by Wayne, Swayne, Miller
Laws applied
U.S. Const., Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1863

Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 2 (1866), was a United States Supreme Court case that ruled that the application of military tribunals to citizens when civilian courts are still operating is unconstitutional. It was also controversial because it was one of the first cases after the end of the American Civil War.

Background of the case

Lambdin P. Milligan and four others were accused of planning to steal Union weapons and invade Union prisoner-of-war camps. Once the first prisoner of war camp was liberated, they planned to use the liberated soldiers to help fight against the Government of Indiana and free other camps of Confederate soldiers. They also planned to take over the state governments of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. When the plan leaked, they were charged, found guilty, and sentenced to hang by a military court in 1864. However, their execution was not set until May 1865, so they were able to argue the case after the Civil War ended.

Arguments

The argument for the United States was delivered by Benjamin F. Butler, a Massachusetts lawyer and state legislator, and future Governor of Massachusetts.

The argument for the petitioner was delivered by Jeremiah S. Black, former United States Attorney General and Secretary of State, James A. Garfield, future President, and New York lawyer David Dudley Field.

The Court's decision

Lambdin P. Milligan

The Supreme Court decided that the suspension of habeas corpus was lawful, but military tribunals did not apply to citizens in states that had upheld the authority of the Constitution and where civilian courts were still operating. In essence, the Court ruled that military tribunals could not try civilians in areas where civil courts were open, even when the military had been authorized to detain individuals without trial.

It observed further that during the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, citizens may be only held without charges, not tried, and certainly not executed by military tribunals; the writ of habeas corpus is not the right itself but merely the ability to issue orders demanding the right's enforcement.

It is important to note the political environment of the decision. Post-Civil War, under a Republican Congress, the Court was reluctant to hand down any decision that questioned the legitimacy of military courts, especially in the occupied South. The President's ability to suspend habeas corpus independently of Congress, a central issue, was not addressed, probably because it was moot with respect to the case at hand. Though President Lincoln suspended the writ nationwide on September 24, 1862, Congress ratified this action almost six months later, on March 3, 1863, with the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act. Milligan was detained in 1864, well after Congress formally suspended the writ. That notwithstanding, military jurisdiction had been limited.

See also

• Supreme Court cases of the American Civil War
• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 71
• Ex parte Merryman
• Ex parte Quirin
• Hamdi v. Rumsfeld

References

• Klaus, Samuel. The Milligan Case. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970.

Further reading

• Rehnquist, William H. (1998). All the Laws but One: Civil Liberties in Wartime. New York: William Morrow & Co. ISBN 0-688-05142-1. 

External links

• Works related to Ex parte Milligan at Wikisource
• Text of Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866) is available from: Justia · Findlaw

• Oyez, Official Supreme Court media, Ex Parte Milligan.
• Historical analysis of the case - Elisheva Ruth Coleman Princeton University senior thesis