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John Merryman - born August 9, 1824, died November 15, 1884. Husband of Anne Louise Gittings. Merryman was the plaintiff in the best known habeas corpus case of the American Civil War
A resident of Cockeysville, Baltimore County Maryland, Merryman was an officer in the Maryland State Milita unit that was tasked with disabling the railroad bridges into Baltimore following the Pratt Street Riot. Merryman was arrested at his home in Cockeysville by union troops without a writ of habeas corpus, which had been suspended by President Abraham Lincoln. He petitioned the court of Roger Taney for a writ, prompting Taney to strike down Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus on the basis of its unconstitutionality (see Ex Parte Merryman).
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