CHAT GPT versus GROK

CHAT GPT:

Tillman asking:

Was ex parte merryman a federal circuit court decision?

ChatGPT said:

Short answer: Yes — technically.

Explanation:

Ex parte Merryman (1861) was not a U.S. Supreme Court decision. It was issued by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney acting in his capacity as a circuit judge for the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Maryland. At that time, Supreme Court justices “rode circuit” and presided over the federal circuit courts.

So, while it is often discussed as a Supreme Court–level constitutional confrontation, Ex parte Merryman was formally a federal circuit court opinion, not a ruling of the Supreme Court itself.

GROK:

Tillman asking:

Was ex parte merryman a federal circuit court decision?

No, Ex parte Merryman (1861) was not a federal circuit court decision in the modern sense.

It was a ruling issued by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney sitting as a single circuit judge in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Maryland, not a decision of a multi-judge appellate circuit court.

Key context:

At that time (1861), U.S. Supreme Court justices “rode circuit” and held circuit court sessions individually in their assigned districts, in addition to their Supreme Court duties.

Taney was the circuit justice assigned to the Fourth Circuit, which included Maryland.

John Merryman had been arrested and detained at Fort McHenry by Union military authorities for alleged pro-Confederate activities.

Merryman’s lawyers filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus directly with Taney in his capacity as the circuit judge for Maryland.

On May 28, 1861, Taney issued the opinion Ex parte Merryman, ruling that President Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus was unconstitutional and that only Congress (not the President) had the power to suspend the writ.

Important points about its status:

It was a single-judge circuit court ruling, not a decision of the full U.S. Court of Appeals (the modern circuit courts did not exist in their current form until the Evarts Act of 1891).

The military commander at Fort McHenry (General Cadwalader) simply ignored Taney’s order, and the Lincoln administration refused to comply.

Because it was issued by a single circuit judge and never reviewed or enforced, it has no binding precedential value as circuit court or Supreme Court precedent.

It is historically significant as one of the most dramatic confrontations between the judiciary and the executive during the Civil War, but legally it is essentially Taney’s opinion from the circuit court bench, not an appellate decision.

In short: Ex parte Merryman was a federal circuit court ruling in the narrow historical sense (issued by a Supreme Court justice sitting as a circuit judge), but it was not a decision of a federal court of appeals or a multi-judge panel, and it carries no formal precedential weight today.

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘CHAT GPT versus GROK,’ New Reform Club (Dec. 4 ,2025, 9:19 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2025/12/chat-gpt-versus-grok.html>;