Note 4 — Chapter I · INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
Exemplified by Justice Davis’s decision for the majority of the Court in Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall. 2, 120-21, 126 (1866):
“The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism; but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false; for the government, within the constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence....
“... It could well be said that a country, preserved at the sacrifice of all the cardinal principles of liberty, is not worth the cost of preservation.”