Judiciary Act

“ As an original question, it is submitted that it has no foundation in principle. The origin of all the misunderstanding on the subject lies in the Judiciary Act. Congress, throughout that act, legislated upon the supposition, that whatever jurisdiction was by the Constitution vested in the Federal courts might be made exclusive. [10] And judges and commentators have not always been sufficiently alive to the distinction between an act of Congress and a constitutional grant; and have assumed the jurisdiction to be exclusive without inquiry, because Congress declared it so. ”

“ The First Judiciary Act conferred such a power on the federal courts in the very act of their establishment, 1 Stat. 73, 83, and of the Judiciary Committee of eight that reported the bill to the Senate, five members including the chairman, Senator, later to be Chief Justice, Ellsworth, had been delegates to the Constitutional Convention. ”

“ It is manifest that the averments of citizenship in neither of the bills are sufficient to give the Circuit Court jurisdiction under the Judiciary Act of 1789; and all were filed subsequent to the 13th of July, 1866. ”

“ And after such bodies are recognized as having been duly organized, and are admitted into the Union, if they ever be, the judicial tribunals of the general government, which acquiesces in the political organization that has been professing to pass statutes, and which admits it as a legal and competent State, must treat its statutes passed under that organization as they would the statutes of any other State, within the meaning and spirit of the Judiciary Act. ”

“ The judiciary may, and often do, command and compel inferior executive officers to do specific official acts which it is their plain duty to perform, or issue an injunction to prevent their doing an official act which is plainly beyond their powers. Heads of Departments of the State or the United States are subject to this power. ”

“ The rule that transactions are governed by the law of the place where they have their seat is one founded on the presumed intent of the parties to them. But in fact the parties to a business transaction act on their general notions of what the law is or must be, rather than on any particular knowledge of what courts have declared that it is. The rule that one country will accept the opinion of the judicial authorities of another as to what its law is, is one not to be pressed so far as to sacrifice essential justice. ”

“ A punishment inflicted for contempt, even though it goes beyond the rightful jurisdiction of the court in such a matter, is a judicial act, and does not expose the judge passing the sentence to an action for damages. ”

“ Under every American constitution, therefore, which has conferred upon the executive power to remove a judge upon the address of the two houses of the legislature, the question whether that power extends to any cases but those of official misconduct or incapacity must be determined by a careful consideration of the position which that constitution assigns to the judiciary. ”

“ Commercial intercourse between the different States is so great and so constant that questions in the courts of one often arise which turn on the law of another. Those who do any act do it with implied reference to the law of the place where it is done, so far as respects its legal consequences. ”

“ Second, the requirement of a case or controversy serves to "define the role assigned to the judiciary in a tripartite allocation of power to assure that the federal courts will not intrude into areas committed to the other branches of government." Id. This "dual limitation" found in the requirement of a case or controversy is enforced by what have been termed the justiciability doctrines of Article III, which state the fundamental limits on federal judicial power in our system of government. ”

“ The term 'Judicial power' was itself substituted for the phrase, 'The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court' to conform Art. III to the use of the terms 'legislative powers' and 'executive power' in Arts. I and II. [55] It thus draws life from that to which it extends: to cases and controversies. That much, at any rate, is clear. Whether it draws life from any cases or controversies other than those specifically enumerated in Art. III must now be considered.
The second principle, that any powers not specifically granted to the national judiciary by Art. ”

“ Of course the great object of the independence of the Judiciary must here have reference not only to our Executive, but our Legislature. The Legislature with us is the fountain of power. No person will say that the Judges of the Supreme Court can be removed, unless by impeachment and conviction of misbehavior; but the judges of the inferior courts, as soon as ordained and established, are placed upon precisely the same grounds of independence with the Judges of the Supreme Court. ”

“ The reference made by the gentleman from Allegany (Mr. Thruston) to the article on the judiciary does not remove the difficulty at all, because the words there are; precisely the same as those used in the hill of rights. "Removable for misbehavior, on conviction in a court of law, or by the Governor, on the address of the General Assembly, provided that two thirds of the members of each House shall concur in such address." Now I want some general law, providing for full notice, and a fair trial, and I want it in both places, in the Declaration of Bights and the article on the judiciary. ”

“ When we observe the importance, which that constitution attaches to the independence of judges, we are the less inclined to suppose, that it can have intended to leave these constitutional questions to tribunals, where this independence may not exist, in all eases where a state shall prosecute an individual, who claims the protection of an act of congress. ”

“ It may entrust this power of decision to an executive, a legislative, or a judicial officer. It has, in fact, in some States, entrusted it to a court, and authorized it, if it decided in favor of those claiming incorporation, not only to record the decision, but to issue the paper which shows that they are entitled to possess and enjoy the franchise.
It is safe to assert that in no State are the functions of the courts purely judicial. Many belonging to the administration of the methods of political government are in all intrusted to judicial officers either originally or by way of review. ”

“ The registry of death dates and the system of presumptions established in section 302 would solve most of the problems in determining when an
individual author died.
Aside from the Philippines, whose copyright statute was patterned after the United States Act of 1909, no country in the world has provisions on the duration of copyright like ours. Virtually every other copyright law in the world bases the term of protection for works by natural persons on the life of the author, and a substantial majority of these accord protection for 50 years after the author’s death. ”

“ The Constitutions of the States generally require the existence of a Supreme Court of last resort, and often specify also by name one or more of inferior jurisdiction. Such courts stand on a firmer footing than those created by the legislature under a general power to establish inferior courts. The power to establish implies a power to limit and to destroy. ”

“ The Legislature have a right to impose any duty upon us as a court, or upon the justices. who compose the court, which is not incompatible with the constitution, and we do not think that the term, separate supreme court, which is applied to this court, necessarily implies that the justices of the court cannot be empowered by the Legislature to do any act, which may come before the whole court. ”

“ Congress in 1793, shortly after the American Colonies became one united Nation, provided that in federal courts 'a writ of injunction (shall not) be granted to stay proceedings in any court of a state.' Act of March 2, 1793, § 5, 1 Stat. 335. Although certain exceptions to this general prohibition have been added, that statute, directing that state courts shall remain free from interference by federal courts, has remained in effect until this time. ”

“ This is for the legislature to ask them specially for their opinion as to the constitutionality of a bill before it is put upon its passage. An analogous practice has always obtained in England, and was followed in several of the colonies.
Some of our State Constitutions expressly authorize such proceedings. In the absence of such authority, the judges can properly decline to comply with the request. It always asks them to prejudge a question which may later come before them in court, and to prejudge it without hearing any of the parties whom it may affect injuriously. ”

“ If this apprehended patronage means the power of appointing the Judiciary, that power is given by the constitution, and is the same, whether the power of the Judiciary be vested in six or in sixteen judges. If it fear an undue control over the people in favor of the Executive, through the Judiciary, make the judges as independent as we contend they are and ought to be, and they are placed beyond the necessity of descending to the practice of improper means to preserve Executive favor. ”

“ If there be one power that a State possesses, which ought to be deemed beyond the control, in any mode, of the National Government or of any of its courts, it is the power by judicial proceedings to appear in its own courts, by its law-officer or by attorneys, and seek the guidance of those courts in respect of matters of a justiciable nature. If the state court, by its judgment, in such a suit, should disregard the injunctions of the Federal Constitution, that judgment would be subject to review by this court upon writ of error or appeal. ”

“ That altho’ every negative given to the law of a particular State shall prevent its operation, any State may appeal to the national Judiciary against a negative; and that such negative if adjudged to be contrary to the power granted by the articles of the Union, shall be void
5. that any individual conceiving himself injured or oppressed by the partiality or injustice of a law of any particular State may resort to the National Judiciary, who may adjudge such law to be void, if found contrary to the principles of equity and justice. ”

“ Now, the functions of judicial tribunals—of all courts alike, whether Federal or state, whether superior or inferior—is to interpret the law, and if any tribunal finds a Congressional statute or state statute inconsistent with the Constitution, the tribunal is obliged to hold such statute invalid. A tribunal does this not because it has any right or power of its own in the matter, but because the people have, in enacting the Constitution as a supreme law, declared that all other laws inconsistent with it are ipso jure void. ”