Chief Justice Salmon Chase
6th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court
Biography:
Born: January 13, 1808 Cornish, New Hampshire
Died: May 7, 1873 in New York City, New York
Education: Admitted to the bar in 1829
Employment: 1829 practiced law
                     1849-1855 elected to the U.S. Senate
                     1855-1859 elected Governor of Ohio
                     1859-1861 elected to the U.S. Senate
                     1861 appointed President Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury
                     1864 resigned Secretary of the Treasury
                     1864 appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Lincoln
                     1873 died in office
(Virtualology, 2002)
Chase Court:
   In 1864 President Lincoln nominated Salmon Chase to the United States Supreme Court as chief justice.  Chief Justice Chase was a candidate that was quickly nominated and affirmed.  Most people were worried that Chase wouldn�t make the best chief justice because at the time he had been away from the Bar for fourteen year and his time in the Senate and the Cabinet had kept them away from the updates of the legal world. (Warren, 1926)  Some also believed that because he was so immersed in the political arena that for him justice might not be blind. (1926) When Chase stepped up and put on his black robes politics went out the window and justice became blind.
     Chief Justice Chase continued the Taney and Civil War Court and dealt with reconstruction cases that followed the war.  The first major case that the Chase Court handled was Ex parte* Milligan in 1866.  The Court ruled in Ex parte Milligan that the president (at the time the president was Andrew Johnson) had no right to establish a military tribunal during the war when there were civil courts open in the localities in question. (1926) This was a time where tensions were high and the Radical Reconstructionists in the Senate were at odds with President Johnson.  The Senate was not happy that President Johnson went along with his plans on reconstructing the south while the Congress was out and had completed much of his plans before they reconvened.
      Ex parte Milligan set up the courts as the first resort and when one couldn�t be provided for then a military tribunal was provided.  Ex parte McCardle was a case that was decided in 1869.  William McCardle was a journalist who opposed the Reconstruction laws that placed the south under military rule. (Epstein, 2001)  McCardle was arrested for allegedly publishing �incendiary and libelous articles� and was tried in front of a military tribunal. (2001) According McCardle he was not part of the military and therefore should not be held in front of a military tribunal.  The Supreme Court was going to use an 1867 act which would allow the justices �to grant habeas corpus* to persons detained in violation� of the U.S. Constitution (Amendment 1, freedom of press). (2001) Right before the Supreme Court was going to make their decision which would have been in favor of McCardle the Congress repealed the Habeas Corpus Act, which removed the Supreme Court�s authority to hear the case and had to decline to hear the case due to lack of jurisdiction. (2001)
     Chief Justice Chase served for 4 more years after McCardle and continued to the fight Congress and continued to try ex parte cases during his time in the Reconstruction era. Chief Justice Morrison Waite would take charge of the Supreme Court after the death of Chief Justice Chase and continue with Civil War Court.

*Ex parte means a hearing in which only one party to a dispute is present (Epstein, 2001)
*habeas corpus means �you have a body�. A writ issued to determine if a person held in custody is being unlawfully detained or imprisoned. (2001)
Major Cases:Ex parte Milliagn 1866
                    Ex parte McMcardle 1869
(Epstein, 2001)
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