May 27 (A Double)

1679 - The British parliament passed the 'Habeas Corpus Act of Parliament.' Habeas Corpus is described as "Upon proper application, or even on naked knowledge alone, a court is empowered, and is duty bound, to issue the Extraordinary Writ of Habeas Corpus commanding one who is restraining liberty to forthwith produce before the court the person who is in custody and to show cause why the liberty of that person is being restrained."

The application of this law in the American colonies was one of the many issues which caused the American Revolution, and is addressed in multiple places in the U.S. Constitution:

Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 2 is the most specific: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

It is also implied and indirectly addressed in the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments.

1861 - Ex Parte Merryman:  Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled President Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was unconstitutional. Lincoln ignored the Supreme Court's ruling.

What great timing for Taney. I'm sure he picked this date to make his ruling; piggy-backing on the British law from 1679.

That said, Lincoln was correct to make this policy decision, and to ignore the Court's ruling...And yes, his decision was constitutional.

Read what Article 1 states: “..., unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it."

We were in the early stages of the Civil War, and clearly in a state of “rebellion”...But the moral degenerates of the time (Democrats by the way) claimed we were not at war with another nation, so this was not a legitimate reason to suspend the law. The kind of twisted logic modern-Democrats are famous for.

Either way, the judiciary had no way to enforce their ruling and Lincoln had a nation to save - which he did.

1994 - Nobel Prize winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia to the emotional cheers of thousands after spending two decades in exile.

Solzhenitsyn was the greatest 'freedom fighting' Russian of the 20th Century, and one of the top four worldwide in the second half of the 20th Century...Along with Pope John Paul II, Reagan and Thatcher.

If you decide to read one 'GREAT' (though terribly difficult) book before you die, take a look at: The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956...Or you can take a much easier, though still effective, way out and read:  Gulag:  A History