Ex parte Merryman
E276818
Ex parte Merryman was an 1861 U.S. federal court case in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney challenged President Abraham Lincoln’s authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ex parte Merryman canonical | 3 |
| Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2538923 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ex parte Merryman Context triple: [Roger B. Taney Court, notableCase, Ex parte Merryman]
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A.
United States v. Cruikshank
United States v. Cruikshank was an 1876 U.S. Supreme Court decision that severely limited federal enforcement of civil rights protections, especially against racially motivated violence in the Reconstruction-era South.
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B.
Paul v. Virginia
Paul v. Virginia is an 1869 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held corporations are not “citizens” under the Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause, allowing states to regulate foreign insurance companies.
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C.
Morgan v. Virginia
Morgan v. Virginia was a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws mandating racial segregation on interstate buses, laying important groundwork for later civil rights actions.
-
D.
Ableman v. Booth
Ableman v. Booth was an 1859 U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed federal supremacy over state courts in enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act before the Civil War.
-
E.
Dissent in the Prize Cases (1863)
Dissent in the Prize Cases (1863) is a notable Supreme Court opinion in which Justice Samuel Nelson argued against the majority’s validation of President Lincoln’s Civil War blockade powers.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ex parte Merryman Target entity description: Ex parte Merryman was an 1861 U.S. federal court case in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney challenged President Abraham Lincoln’s authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War.
-
A.
United States v. Cruikshank
United States v. Cruikshank was an 1876 U.S. Supreme Court decision that severely limited federal enforcement of civil rights protections, especially against racially motivated violence in the Reconstruction-era South.
-
B.
Paul v. Virginia
Paul v. Virginia is an 1869 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held corporations are not “citizens” under the Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause, allowing states to regulate foreign insurance companies.
-
C.
Morgan v. Virginia
Morgan v. Virginia was a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws mandating racial segregation on interstate buses, laying important groundwork for later civil rights actions.
-
D.
Ableman v. Booth
Ableman v. Booth was an 1859 U.S. Supreme Court case that affirmed federal supremacy over state courts in enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act before the Civil War.
-
E.
Dissent in the Prize Cases (1863)
Dissent in the Prize Cases (1863) is a notable Supreme Court opinion in which Justice Samuel Nelson argued against the majority’s validation of President Lincoln’s Civil War blockade powers.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (41)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American Civil War legal case
ⓘ
United States federal court case ⓘ habeas corpus case ⓘ |
| branchChallenged | executive branch ⓘ |
| chiefJustice |
Roger Brooke Taney
ⓘ
surface form:
Roger B. Taney
|
| citationStyle |
Ex parte Merryman
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861)
|
| concerns | suspension of the writ of habeas corpus ⓘ |
| constitutionalProvision |
Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution
ⓘ
surface form:
Article I, Section 9, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution
|
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| court | United States Circuit Court for the District of Maryland ⓘ |
| date | 1861 ⓘ |
| hasJurisdiction |
U.S. federal courts
ⓘ
surface form:
United States federal courts
|
| held |
that the President lacked unilateral authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus
ⓘ
that the power to suspend habeas corpus lies with Congress, not the President ⓘ |
| historicalContext | Union military arrests of suspected Confederate sympathizers in Maryland ⓘ |
| involves | Abraham Lincoln ⓘ |
| isOftenCitedIn |
discussions of civil liberties in wartime
ⓘ
scholarship on separation of powers ⓘ |
| isOftenComparedTo |
Ex parte Milligan
ⓘ
Korematsu v. United States ⓘ |
| judgeAuthoredOpinion |
Roger Brooke Taney
ⓘ
surface form:
Roger B. Taney
|
| legalIssue |
civil liberties during wartime
ⓘ
presidential power to suspend habeas corpus ⓘ separation of powers ⓘ |
| location | Maryland ⓘ |
| petitioner | John Merryman ⓘ |
| presidentInvolved | Abraham Lincoln ⓘ |
| presidingJudge |
Roger Brooke Taney
ⓘ
surface form:
Roger B. Taney
|
| relatedTo |
Abraham Lincoln’s April 27, 1861 suspension of habeas corpus
ⓘ
Suspension Clause ⓘ
surface form:
Suspension Clause of the United States Constitution
|
| respondent | United States government ⓘ |
| result |
executive branch refused to comply with the court’s order
ⓘ
order to release John Merryman from military custody ⓘ |
| significance |
early and prominent challenge to presidential war powers
ⓘ
important precedent in debates over emergency powers ⓘ landmark in the history of habeas corpus in the United States ⓘ |
| status | never reviewed by the United States Supreme Court as a full Court ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
limits on martial law
ⓘ
military detention of civilians ⓘ |
| tookPlaceDuring | American Civil War ⓘ |
| year | 1861 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ex parte Merryman Description of subject: Ex parte Merryman was an 1861 U.S. federal court case in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney challenged President Abraham Lincoln’s authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (C.C.D. Md. 1861)