Editing Ex parte Milligan (section)

===Circuit Court petition===
On May 10, 1865, Jonathan W. Gorden, Milligan's legal counsel, filed a petition for a writ of ''habeas corpus'' in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Indiana in Indianapolis.<ref name=EPM-Findlaw/> A similar petition was filed on behalf of Bowles and Horsey. The petitions were based on an act of the [[United States Congress|Congress]] titled "[[Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1863|An Act Relating to Habeas Corpus and Regulation Judicial Proceedings in Certain Cases]]" that went into effect on March 3, 1863. The act was intended to resolve the question of whether Lincoln had the constitutional authority to suspend the writ of ''habeas corpus'' as authorized under Article 1, section 9, of the U.S. Constitution.<ref name=Nolan40-41/> Milligan's petition alleged that a federal grand jury had met in Indianapolis during January 1865, which it did, and it had not indicted him, which is also true, making him eligible for a release from prison under the congressional act.<ref name=Nolan40-41/><ref>On January 2, 1865, the Circuit Court of the United States for Indiana met at Indianapolis, empanelled a grand jury, and adjourned on January 27, 1865, without indicting or charging Milligan with any offenses. See {{Caselaw source |case=''Ex parte Milligan'', 71 U.S. 2 (1866) |findlaw = {{cite web|url=http://laws.findlaw.com/us/71/2.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-08-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725084836/http://laws.findlaw.com/us/71/2.html |archive-date=2008-07-25 }} |accessdate=2015-12-03}}</ref>

On May 16, three days before their scheduled execution, Horsey's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and the executions of Milligan and Bowles were postponed to June 2. President Johnson approved commutation of the sentences for Milligan and Bowles to life imprisonment on May 30, 1865.<ref name=Klement226-27>Klement, ''Dark Lanterns'', pp. 226–27.</ref> In the interim, Justice [[David Davis (Supreme Court justice)|David Davis]], an [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States|associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court]] and a judge of the federal circuit that included Indiana, and Judge Thomas Drummond, another federal circuit court judge, reviewed Milligan's circuit court petition. The two judges disagreed about whether the U.S. Constitution prohibited civilians from being tried by a military commission and passed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.<ref name=Klement226-27/><ref name=Nolan41-42>Nolan, pp. 41–42.</ref>