ABSTRACT
In Ex parte McCardle, 74 US 506, the US Supreme Court upheld a law removing its authority to review a case concerning an individual whose right to a writ of habeas corpus was taken away. William McCardle, editor of a Vicksburg, Mississippi, newspaper, was to be tried before a military commission on charges of inciting insurrection and publishing libelous materials in violation of the statutes Congress had passed to govern the defeated Confederate states. The statutory basis of McCardle's appeal is important to understanding the significance of the McCardle decision. Championing the repeal statute were Republican senators who feared the Court would use McCardle's case to declare unconstitutional the statutory structure of Reconstruction government in the southern states. In response to the passage of the repeal statute, the Supreme Court asked the parties to the McCardle case to appear again before the Court and argue the jurisdiction issue.
