Ex parte McCardle

US Supreme Court decision 1869 dealing with the power of Congress to deprive the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over appeals. William McCardle, a Mississippi journalist convicted of sedition by a military court and refused a writ of habeas corpus by the federal circuit court, appealed his case to the Supreme Court. Afraid that the military Reconstruction governments would be found unconstitutional, Congress revoked the Court's jurisdiction over appeals. The Court ruled unanimously that this was fully within the constitutional right of Congress to make exceptions to the Supreme Court's right to hear appeals; furthermore, it was not the Court's job to discern the political motives of restrictions imposed by Congress.