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Originally Posted by Bill O'Rights
Article 1 - The Legislative Branch
Section 9 - Limits on Congress
Lincoln was the President. He didn't have the power, or the authority. He took it. And if you didn't agree, and spoke out, you were imprisoned. Clean, simple, efficient.
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You're absolutely right: it was unconstitutional. Lincoln didn't have the authority to suspend the writ, and he was wrong to bypass congress. Ultimately, the decision was beneficial to the cause of peace, but the ends to not justify the means.
That's not my point, though. The point is that no one, president, congress, or the FDA can suspend habeas unless we are being invaded or are at civil war. The fact that was ignored is a new precedent, the dangerous precedent of which I speak.
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Originally Posted by Bill O'Rights
Oh...and Fort Sumter was attacked in April of 1861. Lincoln suspended Habeus Corpus in September 1862. He did so in order to quiet the Copperheads.
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April 27, 1861 was the first suspension, not September 1862. He suspended the writ along the Philly-Washington route because Confederates stopped the Union troops from reaching a train station and caused a riot.