I greatly enjoyed Dorothy Storrow’s letter sketching out for us the defining characteristics and the value of the writ of habeas corpus. I had no idea it dated back to the Magna Carta. But I do know that the man who many consider to be our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, suspended the writ in Maryland in April of 1861. When he received a letter from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney objecting to this action, Lincoln ignored it.

Francis Gallo

Williamsburg