In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln announced he was suspending the most basic of civil rights: the right of habeas corpus, which prohibits the government from imprisoning you without charges.

When a court ordered the federal government to release an unindicted U.S. citizen, Lincoln simply ignored the order. The Bill of Rights and the courts were now null and void. Such niceties could not be indulged when the very existence of the Republic was at stake.