''Ex parte Garland'', 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 333 (1866), was an important

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

case involving the disbarment of former Confederate officials.

Background

In January 1865, the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

passed a law that effectively disbarred former members of the Confederate government by requiring a

loyalty oath A loyalty oath is a pledge of allegiance to an organization, institution, or state of which an individual is a member. In the United States, such an oath has often indicated that the affiant has not been a member of a particular organization o ...

to be recited by any federal court officer that affirmed that the officer had never served in the Confederate government.

Augustus Hill Garland Augustus Hill Garland (June 11, 1832 – January 26, 1899) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Arkansas, who initially opposed Arkansas' secession from the United States, but later served in both houses of the Congress ...

, an attorney and a former Confederate Senator from

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

, subsequently received a pardon from US President

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a D ...

. Garland then came before the court and pleaded that the act of Congress was a

bill of attainder A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...

and an ''ex post facto'' law, which unfairly punished him for the crime for which he had been pardoned, and so was unconstitutional.

Decision

In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the law was both a bill of attainder and an ''ex post facto'' law. The court also ruled that the president can exercise the pardon power at any time after the commission of the crime, and that Garland was beyond the reach of punishment of any kind because of his prior presidential pardon.On limitations to the president’s pardon power, see: The court also stated that counselors are officers of the court, not officers of the United States, and that their removal was an exercise of judicial power, not legislative power. The law was struck down as unconstitutional, which opened the way for former Confederate government officials to return to positions in the federal judiciary.

Notes

External links

* * 1866 in United States case law United States Supreme Court cases of the Chase Court United States clemency case law United States Constitution Article One case law United States ex post facto case law Reconstruction Era United States Supreme Court cases {{scotus-stub