Samuel Freeman Miller

“ Whether an attachment for a contempt of court, and the judgment of the court punishing the party for such contempt, is in itself essentially a crimia l proceeding or not, we do not find it necessary to decide. We simply hold that, whatever its nature may be, it is an offense against the court, and against the administration of justice, for which courts have always had the right to punish the party by summary proceeding, and without trial by jury; and that, in that sense, it is due process of law, within the meaning of the fourteenth amendment of the constitution. ”

“ The counsel for plaintiffs in error seek to evade the force of this reasoning by the proposition that the entire statute under which this injunction was issued is in the nature of a criminal proceeding, and that the contempt of court of which these parties have been found guilty is a crime for the punishment of which they have a right to trial by jury. ”

“ If the objection to the statute is that it authorizes a proceeding in the nature of a suit in equity to suppress the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors which are by law prohibited, and to abate the nuisance which the statute declares such acts to be, wherever carried on, we respond that, so far as at present advised, it appears to us that all the powers of a court, whether at common law or in chancery, may be called into operation by a legislative body for the purpose of suppressing this objectionable traffic ”