Melville Fuller

“ The contention, that the right of the executive authority to determine when offenses charged are or are not purely political is exclusive, is not involved in any degree; nor are we concerned with the question of the actual criminality of petitioners, if the commissioner had probable cause for his action. It is enough if it appear that there was legal evidence on which the commissioner might properly conclude that the accused had committed offenses within the treaty as charged, and so be justified in exercising his power to commit them to await the action of the executive department. ”

“ Whether an extraditable crime has been committed is a question of mixed law and fact, but chiefly of fact, and the judgment of the magistrate, rendered in good faith, on legal evidence, that the accused is guilty of the act charged, and that it constitutes an extraditable crime, cannot be reviewed on the weight of evidence, and is final for the purposes of the preliminary examination, unless palpably erroneous in law.
It must be assumed, on this record, that the commissioner was duly authorized; that petitioners were not citizens of the United States, but were citizens of Mexico ”

“ As the English extradition act of 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 52) extracts from sections 3 and 11 of which are given below, [1] contemplates an independent examination on habeas corpus in every case, if applied for, as in effect part of the proceedings, it has been held that the courts have power to go into the whole matter under the writ so provided for. In re Castioni [1891] 1 Q. B. 149; In re Arton [1896] 1 Q. B. 108. But the legislation of congress in respect of extradition is widely different, and the scope of inquiry on the writ of habeas corpus is necessarily much narrower. ”