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A state of emergency does weird things to executive power. Last time habeus corpus was suspended, Lincoln did it during the Civil War via executive order in April and it wasn't struck down by a Court until June. Everyone preceded to ignore the ruling anyway, until Congress could pass the bill that made the suspension legal two years later (due to partisan bickering, surprise!). By then, Lincoln had arrested a Congressman and a significant fraction of Maryland's state legislature.

The legitimacy of the courts really took some big hits in the last few decades. Will the judicial branch even have the power to stop the other branches before this is all over? Only time will tell.



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