Taney Arrest Warrant

The Taney Arrest Warrant theory is a controversial story of recent discovery in Abraham Lincoln scholarship. The standard version of the story alleges that in late May or early June of 1861 President Lincoln secretly ordered an arrest warrant for Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, that was quickly abandoned. The alleged arrest order is said to have been a retaliatory measure against Taney in response to his ruling in Ex parte Merryman, which found that Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was unconstitutional.

Related Topics:
Abraham Lincoln - May - June - 1861 - Arrest warrant - Roger B. Taney - Chief Justice - United States Supreme Court - Ex parte Merryman - Habeas corpus - Unconstitutional

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The severity of the allegation that Lincoln would attempt to arrest the sitting Chief Justice, and the relatively scant corroborating evidence (the main details of the story come mostly from a single document written in the 1880's), have caused some Lincoln scholars to question its authenticity, though the question remains unsettled and some new evidence has been discovered in recent years.

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