Bollman

It's true, as Joe says, that there was a debate between the majority and the dissent in St. Cyr about what Marshall meant to say in Bollman.

Balkinization 2007

First, O'Connor did not join the dissenting opinion discussion on the Bollman case, considering it not necessary to address it.

Balkinization 2007

Combined with Marshall's observation that "the power to award the writ by any of the courts of the United States, must be given by written law," Bollman suggests that the Suspension Clause does not secure every American (much less every alien) a right to habeas, but instead that it simply limits the circumstances under which Congress may suspend the privilege that it had previously conferred.

Balkinization 2007

Indeed, it seems to have been the view of Chief Justice Marshall, who wrote in Ex Parte Bollman, 8 Cranch 75 (1807) that had the First Congress not provided an "efficient means by which this great constitutional privilege should receive life and activity ... the privilege itself would be lost, although no law for its suspension should be enacted."

Balkinization 2007

Indeed, it seems to have been the view of Chief Justice Marshall, who wrote in Ex Parte Bollman, 8 Cranch 75 (1807) that had the First Congress not provided an "efficient means by which this great constitutional privilege should receive life and activity ... the privilege itself would be lost, although no law for its suspension should be enacted."

Balkinization 2007

First, O'Connor did not join the dissenting opinion discussion on the Bollman case, considering it not necessary to address it.

Balkinization 2007

It's true, as Joe says, that there was a debate between the majority and the dissent in St. Cyr about what Marshall meant to say in Bollman.

Balkinization 2007

It's true, as Joe says, that there was a debate between the majority and the dissent in St. Cyr about what Marshall meant to say in Bollman.

Balkinization 2007

Combined with Marshall's observation that "the power to award the writ by any of the courts of the United States, must be given by written law," Bollman suggests that the Suspension Clause does not secure every American (much less every alien) a right to habeas, but instead that it simply limits the circumstances under which Congress may suspend the privilege that it had previously conferred.

Balkinization 2007

First, O'Connor did not join the dissenting opinion discussion on the Bollman case, considering it not necessary to address it.

Balkinization 2007