OCR Text |
Show 5- SUPREME (SjfffL COURT "jit IT WORKS "Shield of Protection" By ROBERT MERRILL finHE Constitution of the J- United States is a law for rulers and people, equally equal-ly in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances." That quotation is from an opinion rendered by the Supreme court of the United States in one of its most famous decisions. The facts in the case are these: In October, 1864, Lambdin P. Mil-ligan Mil-ligan was sentenced to death on the gallows. The sentence was declared void. Why? Because he had been denied his constitutional right of trial by jury in a civil court. The Supreme court of the United States, to which he appealed, made that ruling. Tried In Military Court. Milligan, a citizen of the state of Indiana, was arrested on charges of disloyalty to the Union cause. Although Al-though not a member of the army, he was tried and sentenced before a military commission, despite the fact that in the city of Indianapolis, where the trial was held, the civil courts were open. Citing these circumstances and the fact that no indictment had been found against him, Milligan filed a petition to be discharged. The case eventually reached the Supreme court at Washington. Learned and eloquent argument was heard on both sides. But the court based the decision on the Constitution, Con-stitution, and held that one of its guarantees was broken when Milligan Milli-gan was denied a trial by jury. "The great minds of the country," explained the formal opinion of the court, "have differed on the correct Interpretation to be given to various provisions of the Federal Constitution; Constitu-tion; and judicial decision has been often invoked to settle their true meaning; but until recently no ona ever doubted that the right of trial by fury was fortified in the organic law against the power of attack. Calls It Grave Question. "It is now assailed; but if ideas can be expressed in words, and language lan-guage has any meaning, this right one of the most valuable in a free country is preserved to every one accused of crime who is not attached at-tached to the army, or navy, or militia in actual service." The opinion pointed out that Milligan Mil-ligan when arrested and convicted by a military commission was not a resident of a rebellious state, or a prisoner of war, but a citizen of Indiana, who had never been in the military or naval service. "No graver question," it continued, contin-ued, "was ever considered by this court, nor one 'which more nearly concerns the rights of the whole people; for it is the birthright of every American citizen when charged with crime, to be tried and punished according to law . . . "By the protection of the law human rights are secured; withdraw that protection, and they are at the mercy of wicked rulers, or the clamor clam-or of an excited people. "If there was law to justify this military trial, it is not our province to interfere; if there was not, it is our duty to declare the nullity of the whole proceedings." Again the opinion cited the constitutional con-stitutional rights established for the American citizen and declared: Constitution Is Yardstick. "The decision of this question does not depend on argument or judicial precedents, numerous and highly illustrative il-lustrative as ihey are. These precedents prec-edents inform us of the extent of the struggle to preserve liberty and to relieve those in civil life from military trials. The founders of our Government were familiar with the history of that struggle; and secured in a written Constitution every right which the people had wrested from power during a contest of ages. "By that Constitution and laws authorized by it this question must be determined." This was not the only death sentence sen-tence set aside by the Supreme court because it found that constitutional consti-tutional rights had been violated. It had also ruled against the "Third Degree" as a method of obtaining ob-taining evidence on which convictions convic-tions were based. "The rack and torture chamber," it pronounced, "may not be substituted sub-stituted for the witness stand." Western Newspaper Union. |