Before we jump into the facts of Ex Parte McCardle, it’s crucial to understand the
meaning of two important concepts: appellate jurisdiction and the exceptions clause.
Appellate jurisdiction is the power of a court to hear appeals from the decisions of lower
courts.
For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction over judgments of the circuit
courts, and the U.S. circuit courts have appellate jurisdiction over judgments of the district
courts.
The second important concept to understand is the Exceptions Clause.
The Exceptions Clause, found in Article III of the Constitution, is one of the major checks
the Constitution places on the judicial branch.
This clause grants Congress the power to make exceptions to the Supreme Court’s appellate
jurisdiction over cases.
Or put differently, the Exceptions Clause gives Congress the power to strip the Supreme
Court of jurisdiction over particular types of cases.
With that background, let’s discuss Ex Parte McCardle.
Just after the Civil War, William McCardle, a Mississippi newspaper editor, was arrested
by the federal government for publishing newspaper articles that were critical of the post-Civil
War Reconstruction and military occupation of the South.
The federal government justified McCardle's arrest on the grounds that he violated several
provisions of the Reconstruction Acts, a set of federal statutes passed by Congress after
the end of the war.
McCardle sought a writ of habeas corpus from a federal court in his home state of Mississippi,
but was unsuccessful.
McCardle then asked for appellate review of his habeas corpus petition in the United States
Supreme Court, relying on an 1867 congressional statute that permitted the Supreme Court to
have appellate jurisdiction over such cases.
But in 1868, while McCardle’s case was pending, Congress repealed the part of the 1867 statute
on which jurisdiction over McCardle’s appeal relied.
President Andrew Johnson vetoed the repeal, but Congress immediately overrode the veto.
The Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine if it had jurisdiction to hear the case.
The issue on appeal was whether Congress may withdraw jurisdiction from the Supreme Court
after that jurisdiction has been given.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that Congress can, in fact, withdraw
the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Chase reasoned that, although its appellate jurisdiction
is derived from Article III of the Constitution, that jurisdiction is ultimately conferred
“with such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make.”
In its 1867 Act, Congress had previously affirmed the Supreme Court’s exercise of appellate
jurisdiction over habeas corpus actions, but repealed that provision of the act in 1868.
By doing so, Congress exercised its constitutional right to limit Supreme Court jurisdiction.
Thus, the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to consider McCardle’s petition for a writ
of habeas corpus, and the case was dismissed.
The following year, in Ex Parte Yerger, the Court found that it did have the authority
to review habeas decisions made by lower federal courts under the Judiciary Act of 1789.
Ex Parte McCardle serves as the key example of how the Supreme Court has historically
interpreted the Exceptions Clause and is a landmark decision in terms of the separation
of powers and the checks and balances the branches of the federal government have over
one another.
In fact, this case has once again earned attention in the context of habeas corpus petitions
by enemy combatants held by the U.S. government during the War on Terror.
Justice Scalia cited the case in his dissent from Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in support of his
position that the Supreme Court is without power to review such petitions if Congress
has exercised its authority to limit the Court’s jurisdiction.
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