Habeas Corpus - Executive Detention

A couple of days ago, I asked what have been the biggest habeas corpus cases in the Supreme Court. I suggested that they would potentially fall into three categories: (1) the establishment cases; (2) the procedural cases; and (3) the cases with significant criminal law development.

Al O'Connor in the comments suggested Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004), as one of the biggest habeas cases. I agree. And it led me to conclude that there needs to be (at least) one other category: executive detention.

In addition to Hamdi, there are the other more recent executive detention cases (what I'll call the Bush clusterf*ck cases - still don't feel right using out and out profanity around here), such as Rumsfeld v. Padilla, 542 U.S. 426 (2004), Boumediene v. Bush, 128 S. Ct. 2229 (2008), and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006).

Going back further, there are other executive detention cases such as Ex Parte Bollman, 4 Cranch 75 (1807), Ex Parte Milligan, 4 Wall. 2 (1866), and Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944). A couple of these, like Bollman and Milligan, could also fall into the establishment cases.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the non-Supreme Court case of Ex Parte Merryman, 17 F.Cas. 144 (C.D. Md. 1861). Coincidentally enough, today, the New York Law Journal published an essay about Merryman, which was written by this year's winner of its high school legal essay writing contest. Nice to see habeas corpus on the minds of high school students.