Harlan F. Stone

“ Like considerations, we think, require us to refuse to entertain such new grounds of attack as a support for a state judgment of invalidity based on an erroneous construction of the Constitution. In the exercise of our appellate jurisdiction to review the action of state courts we should hold ourselves free to set aside or revise their determinations only so far as they are erroneous and error is not to be predicated upon their failure to decide questions not presented. ”

“ The oil thus transported and delivered to respondent was of two types. One, 'bonded fuel oil', is refined oil imported by the Standard Oil Company from foreign countries and stored in bond in New Jersey without payment of import duties, pursuant to the revenue laws of the United States which authorize release from the bond upon delivery of the oil to a foreign steamship for export or use as fuel by the vessel. The other type, known as 'drawback oil', is the product of crude oil imported from foreign countries by the Standard Oil Company and refined at its New Jersey plant. ”

“ And respondent, in urging decision here of the constitutional questions not pressed in the state court, relies on the familiar rule of appellate court procedure in federal courts that, without a cross-petition or appeal, a respondent or appellee may support the judgment in his favor upon grounds different from those upon which the court below rested its decision. ”