The writ of habeas corpus is an extraordinary remedy because it gives a court the power to release a prisoner after the prisoner has been processed through the criminal justice system, with all its procedural safeguards and appeals.
Noun. 1. Roger Brooke Taney-United States jurist who served as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court; remembered for his ruling that slaves and their descendants have no rights as citizens (1777-1864).
In the Dred Scott v. Sandford, (1857) case, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney held neither slaves nor those descended from slaves could be citizens of the United States and had no legal rights to sue.