John Merryman was a prominent planter from Baltimore County, Maryland, who had been arrested at his rural plantation for destroying railroad bridges on which Union troops were traveling. Held prisoner in Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor,Fort McHenry had been nicknamed the "Baltimore Bastille" for its large numbers of Southern sympathizers under summary arrest held captive in the "Star Fort", while Congress was in recess that Spring of 1861. he was kept inaccessible to the judiciary and to civilian legal authorities generally. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled in this case that the authority to suspend habeas corpus lay exclusively with Congress.Ex parte Merryman Taney's ruling was not a Supreme Court decision.
John Merryman was a prominent planter from Baltimore County, Maryland, who had been arrested at his rural plantation for destroying railroad bridges on which Union troops were traveling. Held prisoner in Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor,Fort McHenry had been nicknamed the "Baltimore Bastille" for its large numbers of Southern sympathizers under summary arrest held captive in the "Star Fort", while Congress was in recess that Spring of 1861. he was kept inaccessible to the judiciary and to civilian legal authorities .generally U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled in this case that the authority to suspend habeas corpus lay exclusively with Congress.Ex parte Merryman Taney's ruling was not a Supreme Court decision.