prize cases

prize cases, (1863), in U.S. history, legal dispute in which the Supreme Court upheld President Abraham Lincoln’s seizure of ships that ran the naval blockade prior to the congressional declaration of war in July 1861. On April 19 and 27, 1861, Lincoln issued proclamations authorizing a blockade of Confederate ports. Congress did not recognize a state of war until July 13. During that interval of almost three months, the Union Navy captured a number of...