In October 1861, one of them, John Murphy, asked the United States Circuit Court for the District of Columbia to issue a writ of habeas corpus for his son, then in the United States Army, on the grounds that he was underage. When the writ was delivered to General Andrew Porter Provost Marshal of the District of Columbia, he had both the lawyer delivering the writ and the United States Circuit Judge William Matthew Merrick, who issued the writ, arrested to prevent them from proceeding in the case "United States ex rel. Murphy v. Porter". Merrick's fellow judges took up the case and ordered General Porter to appear before them, but Lincoln's Secretary of State Seward prevented the federal marshal from delivering the court order. The court objected that this disruption of its process was unconstitutional as the president had not declared martial law (while acknowledging that he had the power to do so) but noted that it was powerless to enforce its prerogatives.