The records of the US Circuit Court for the District of Columbia contain a series of approximately 450 habeas corpus cases dating from 1820 to 1863. Federal habeas corpus is a procedure under which a federal court may review the legality of an individual's incarceration.The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in the case of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. CHAP. LXXXI. -An Act relating to Habeas Corpus, and regulating Judicial Proceed- March 3, 1863. 'ngs in Certain Cases. An Act of Congress that authorized the president of the United States to suspend the right of habeas corpus in response to the American Civil War On May 28, 1861, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney directly challenged President Abraham Lincoln's wartime suspension of the great writ of habeas corpus. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued the most important case on the subject in November 1863, Kneedler v. This Part explains that Congress must make both findings itself, as it did in the Habeas. Writs of Habeas Corpus and Petitions, 1771-1863.
