Editing Ex parte Milligan (section)

===Suppression of dissenters===
During the [[American Civil War]], the administration of [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] dealt with [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] dissenters by declaring [[martial law]]; sanctioning [[arbitrary arrest and detention]]; suspending the writ of ''[[habeas corpus]]'', which requires justification of any detention; and initiating trials by military commission rather than in conventional civil courts. The rationale for these actions was that [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Section 9: Limits on Congress|Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution]] authorizes the suspension of the writ of ''habeas corpus'' "when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it".<ref>[[Alan T. Nolan]], "Ex Parte Milligan: A Curb of Executive and Military Power". In {{cite book| title =We The People: Indiana and the United States Constitution: Lectures in Observance of the Bicentennial of the Constitution | publisher =Indiana Historical Society | year =1987 | location =Indianapolis | pages =28–29| isbn =0871950073}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title =CRS Annotated Constitution | publisher =Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute  | url = https://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/art1frag8_user.html#art1_sec9 | access-date =2015-12-03}}</ref> Lincoln theorized that the civil courts in the United States were established to try individuals and small groups "on charges of crimes well defined in the law" and not to deal with large groups of dissenters, whose actions, though damaging to the war effort, did not constitute a "defined crime" in states loyal to the government.<ref>Nolan, p. 20.</ref> Lincoln believed his administration's plan would suppress anti-government agitators, but he was also optimistic that it would be rescinded after the war ended.<ref>Nolan, p. 30.</ref>

The first test of Lincoln's thesis for silencing dissenters occurred in the spring of 1863. [[Clement Vallandigham]], an [[Ohio]] politician and [[Opposition to the American Civil War|anti-war]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], was placed under arrest on May 5, 1863, taken to [[Cincinnati]] for a trial before a military commission, and jailed. Vallandigham was found guilty and sentenced to prison for the remainder of the war, but Lincoln commuted the sentence and ordered him exiled to the Confederacy.<ref>[[David Herbert Donald|Donald, David Herbert]], ''Lincoln'', Simon & Schuster (1995), p.&nbsp;421.</ref> Vallandigham's petition to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]], known as ''[[Ex parte Vallandigham]]'', was denied.<ref>Nolan, pp. 32–33.</ref>