Ex Parte Milligan Reconsidered: Race and Civil Liberties from the Lincoln Administration to the War on Terror (Stewart L. Winger, Johnathan W. White - AR)

Edited by: Jonathan W White & Stewart L Winger Ex Parte Milligan Reconsidered: Race and Civil Liberties from the Lincoln Administration to the War on Terror At the very end of the Civil War, a military court convicted Lambdin P. Milligan and his coconspirators in Indiana of fomenting a general insurrection and sentenced them to hang. On appeal, in Ex parte Milligan the US Supreme Court sided with the conspirators, ruling that it was unconstitutional to try American citizens in military tribunals when civilian courts were open and functioning—as they were in Indiana. Far from being a relic of the Civil War, the landmark 1866 decision has surprising relevance in our day, as this volume makes clear. Cited in four Supreme Court decisions arising from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Ex parte Milligan speaks to constitutional questions raised by the war on terror; but more than that, the authors of Ex parte Milligan Reconsidered contend, the case affords an opportunity to reevaluate t