Court of Star Chamber

“ His primary strategy was enacting and enforcing statutes to shore up the undermined legal system, which includes the establishment of a new court: the Court of the Star Chamber, to obtain punishment of persons whom juries were afraid to convict. It had no jury and no grand jury indictment. For speed and certainty, it tried people "ex officio": by virtue of its office. Suspects were required to take an oath ex officio, by which they swore to truthfully answer all questions put to them. A man could not refuse to answer on the grounds of self-incrimination. ”

“ No jury in the Star Chamber.
The second reason was, that in this court there was no jury. There had never been juries employed in it from its earliest constitution. The English had contrived the plan of trial by jury as a defense against the severity of government. If a man was accused of crime, the judges appointed by the government that he had offended were not to be allowed to decide whether he was guilty or not. They would be likely not to be impartial. ”

“ During the reign of Elizabeth Sir Thomas Smith remarks that juries misbehaving "were many times commanded to appear in the star chamber, or before the privy council for the matter." The uncertain composition of the court is well shown by Sir Edward Coke, who says that the star chamber is or may be compounded of three several councils: (1) the lords and others of the privy council; (2) the judges of either bench and the barons of the exchequer; (3) the lords of parliament, who are not, however, standing judges of the court. ”

“ The Star Chamber was the room in which the King's council had met since the 1300s.
The most prevalent problems were: murder, robbery, rape or forced marriage of wealthy women, counterfeiting of coin, extortion, misdemeanors by sheriffs and escheators, bribing of sheriffs and jurors, perjury, livery and maintenance agreements, idleness, unlawful plays, and riots. Interference with the course of justice was not committed only by lords on behalf of their retainers; men of humbler station were equally prone to help their friends in court or to give assistance in return for payment. ”

“ Chamber business may be done, and often is done, on the street, in the judge's own house, at the hotel where he stops, when absent from home, or it may be done in transitu, on the cars in going from one place to another within the proper jurisdiction to hold court. Mr. Justice Field could, as well, and as authoritatively, issue a temporary injunction, grant a writ of habeas corpus, an order to show cause, or do any other chamber business for the district in the dining-room at Lathrop, as at his chambers in San Francisco, or in the court-room. ”

“ The writer deprecates the impulse which leads judges, from a feeling that justice should be publicly administered, to throw wide the doors of every courtroom, irrespective of the subject-matter of the trial. We need have no fear of Star Chamber proceedings in America, and no harm would be done by excluding from the courtroom all persons who have no business there. ”

“ The Chamber of Audience, as they call it, is the court of justice, where the Right-herrs, who are in the nature of sheriffs, do sit to despatch and determine the causes of the citizens; and if the cause exceed the value of a hundred dollars, an appeal lies to the Senate, as it doth also in all causes criminal. ”

“ But no sight-seer, no student of our institutions, and particularly no one who is interested in the ways and customs of individual trades, should fail to visit the Supreme Appellate Tribunal of this great country.
The funny thing about the House of Lords [Pg 119] sitting as a court is that it actually sits in the House of Lords. Entering the great red chamber—as anybody may do if he can find the way—one receives the impression that it is perfectly empty, save for the knot of barristers’ clerks, solicitors’ clerks, pressmen and casual onlookers who are huddled round the entrance. ”

“ An act of 1821 provided for sittings in chambers between terms, and an act of 1822 empowered the sovereign to call upon the judges by warrant to sit in chambers on as many days in vacation as should seem fit, while the Law Terms Act 1830 defined the jurisdiction to be exercised at chambers. The Judges’ Chambers Act 1867 was the first act, however, to lay down proper regulations for chamber work, and the Judicature Act 1873 preserved that jurisdiction and gave power to increase it as might be directed or authorized by rules of court to be thereafter made. ”

“ There is only one court or quasi court that he can be called upon to answer to for any dereliction of duty, for doing anything that is contrary to law or failing to do anything which is according to law, and that is not this tribunal but one that sits in another chamber of this Capitol. ”

“ It is well known, that, at the close of the National Convention, Elbridge Gerry refused to sign the Constitution, because, among other things, it sanctioned the establishment of “a tribunal without juries,—a Star-Chamber as to civil cases.” [360] Many united in this opposition, and on the recommendation of the First Congress an additional safeguard was added in the following words: “In suits at Common Law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.” Words cannot be more positive. ”

“ The two chambers possess concurrent powers of legislation, except that all measures imposing taxes or relating to the budget are required to be presented first in the Deputies. By decree of the crown the Senate may be constituted a High Court of Justice to try cases involving treason or attempts upon the safety of the state, and to try ministers impeached by the Chamber of Deputies. When acting in this capacity the body is a tribunal of justice, not a political organization ”

“ When these and the like stories came to the ears of the Parisians they were so incensed that the only talk of the Great Chamber was to recall the deputies, and the generals seeing themselves now respected by the Court, who had little regard for them before the declaration of M. de Turenne, thought that the more the Court was embarrassed the better, and therefore incited the Parliament and people to clamour, that the Cardinal might see that things did not altogether depend upon the conference at Ruel. ”

“ Insidious because it undermines, order, while legislative murder and confiscation induce reaction.
If a legislative chamber would act as a court, the first necessity is to eliminate its legislative character. For example, the House of Lords in England has long discharged the duties of a tribunal of last resort for the empire, and with general approbation, but only because, when sitting as a court, the law lords sit alone. Politicians and political influences are excluded. Where political influences enter disaster follows. ”

“ When the Supreme Court thus undertook to determine the reasonableness of legislation it assumed, under a somewhat thin disguise, the position of an upper chamber, which, though it could not originate, could absolutely veto most statutes touching the use or protection of property, for the administration of modern American society now hinges on this doctrine of judicial dispensation under the Police Power. ”

“ It is appropriate to allow the senior judges of the Supreme Court of Justice under the law on criteria for appointment and tenure of senior judges to participate in forming the chambers in charge of the criminal cases against political office holders. ”

“ The nine judges respectively obtaining the most scores shall form the chamber, but they may not include more than three senior judges of the Supreme Court of Justice. In case of equal scores in any order which cause a surplus in the said number, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice shall conduct sortition to decide which of the persons in question is to be elected.
The judges elected to form a chamber shall have the authority to try and adjudicate the case until they are ordained by this Organic Act to discontinue their functions. ”

“ Be all these things as they may, the general assembly was constituted as the tribunal to conduct and supervise the contest. It approved what took place, and it is familiar law that no question can be raised in the courts as to the honesty or integrity of the members of the legislature in the discharge of their duties. Whatever of purity or honesty may be in fact lacking in the conduct of any one of them is a matter to be inquired into between his constituents and himself, and it is no part of the province of the judiciary to challenge or question the integrity of his action. ”

“ The First President and De Mesmes are now out of the way, and it will be much easier for us to obtain what we want in Parliament than if they were present, and if what is commanded in the Parliamentary decree is faithfully executed, we shall gain our point, and unite the Chambers for that great work of a general peace. If the Court still rejects our proposals, and those of the deputies who are for the Court refuse to follow our motion or to share in our fortune, we shall gain as much in another respect ”

“ But if in the informed discretion of the court, neither the statute nor the rules are up to the task, the court may safely rely on its inherent power.
Like the Court of Appeals, we find no abuse of discretion in resorting to the inherent power in the circumstances of this case. It is true that the District Court could have employed Rule 11 to sanction Chambers for filing "false and frivolous pleadings," 124 F.R.D., at 138, and that some of the other conduct might have been reached through other rules. ”

“ The laymen who were present to make up the necessary quorum of five, as a matter of course, left the whole matter to the presiding Chief Justice, except in some instances, in which party feelings or pecuniary interests are asserted to have induced the unprofessional members to attend in unusual numbers, to disregard the authority of the Chief Justice, and to pervert the law. In the general run of cases, therefore, the decision was left to the President alone, and each Chief Justice became, in consequence, the real Judge of appeal from the whole court of the other district. ”

“ One morning, when there was a large assembly of the Court in this chamber, and M. le Prince had been cajoling the ministers with much suppleness and flattery, Secretary Rose, who saw what had been going on, went up to him on a sudden, and said aloud, putting one finger under his closed eye, as was sometimes his habit, "Sir, I have seen your scheming here with all these gentlemen, and for several days; it is not for nothing. I have known the Court and mankind many years ”

“ Had the cause been tried before a jury, the regular course would have been to move the court to instruct the jury that the act of assembly, in pursuance of which the note was given, was repugnant to the constitution of the United States; and to except to the charge of the judges, if in favour of its validity: or a special verdict might have been found by the jury, stating the act of assembly, the execution of the note in payment of certificates loaned in pursuance of that act; and referring its validity to the court. ”

“ Will any man say that the City Court exists as a matter of necesity, or that the duties of the officers do not belong to other authorities? If not, why not erect a court-room and not compel its presiding dignitary to lounge a hanger-on the Court of Sessions. ”

“ Dependent as its courts are for the enforcement of their judgments upon officers appointed by the executive, and removable at his pleasure, with no patronage and no control of purse or sword, their power and influence rests solely upon the public sense of the necessity for the existence of a tribunal to which all may appeal for the assertion and protection of rights guarantied by the constitution and by the laws of the land, and on the confidence reposed in the soundness of their decisions and the purity of their motives. ”

“ The Star Chamber decided cases as diverse as a case of subordination of witnesses, cases of counterfeiters of farthing tokens, and cases of apothecaries compounding ill medicines. It tried to keep down the prices of foodstuffs for the benefit of the poor; it repressed extortion and false accusations, and disbarred an attorney for sharp practices; it punished defamation, fraud, riots, forgery of wills ”

“ An appeal from the judgment of a justice of the peace will not evade the constitutional objection; for the judgment is final, and the question involves the right of the justice to give judgment in the case, without the intervention of a jury.
Suppose congress, for the purpose of adjusting land titles in a district of country, should establish a special court, called commissioners, to examine and determine between the different claimants; would their proceedings be valid, under the seventh amendment of the constitution? ”

“ To a greater extent than in other types of cases, a judge in successive NGI proceedings will generally have the opportunity to become closely acquainted with the intricacies and nuances of the NGI committee's record of treatment and behavior. If the judge anticipates that the committee will remain institutionalized, there may be a lesser need to open the hearing to the public because there is a smaller risk of the damage to the public's sense of justice, so fervently invoked by the Court. ”