Henry Billings Brown

“ But where a constitution asserts a certain right, or lays down a certain principle of law or procedure, it speaks for the entire people as their supreme law, and is full authority for all that is done in pursuance of its provision. ”

“ When a constitution declares that felonies may be prosecuted by information after a commitment by a magistrate, we understand exactly what is meant, since informations for the prosecution of minor offenses are said by Blackstone to be as old as the common law itself, and a proceeding before magistrates for the apprehension and commitment of persons charged with crime has been the usual method of procedure since the adoption of the Constitution. ”

“ The state courts are as much bound as the Federal courts to see that no man is punished in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States; and ordinarily an error in this particular can better be corrected by this court upon a writ of error to the highest court of the state than by an interference which is never less than unpleasant, with the procedure of the state courts before the petitioner has exhausted his remedy there. ”