Supreme Court of South Carolina

“ In the supreme court of the United States, one of her citizens being a member, she has one seventh part, instead of about one twentieth, her equal proportion of the whole power vested in that tribunal. Until within a few months, she had nearly one third of all the missions of the first grade, from this to foreign countries. In a contingency, which is far from impossible, a citizen of South Carolina would instantly become charged with the administration of the whole of the vast power and patronage of the United States. ”

“ They do not grant relief to any party injured by the wrongful acts which are the subject of the accusation. They sit only to punish the public wrong.
In constituting courts of impeachment, the control of the cause is generally given to officers of the legislative department, but judicial officers are often joined with them. Such a tribunal was long maintained in New York, of which the senators formed the majority, but in which the chancellor and judges of the Supreme Court also sat. The first Constitution of South Carolina, adopted in 1778, contained a similar provision (Art. XXIII) . ”

“ Federal district courts have exclusive jurisdiction of suits to enjoin, set aside, annul or suspend an order of the Commission. In such suits the United States is an indispensable Party. 28 U.S.C. § 46, 28 U.S.C.A. § 46. Although the jurisdiction of the South Carolina Supreme Court was there conceded, and is not here challenged, we think it appropriate to pass upon it.
So far as the appellant's complaint is concerned, this is not the kind of action to 'set aside' a Commission order of which the federal district courts have exclusive jurisdiction. ”

“ Billions of dollars have been levied by the collection of protective duties from the beginning of the government to the present day. No litigant paying duties even as excessive as those on pearl buttons and tin plates, nor lawyer, a class not diffident in advancing untenable claims, has been found, as far as we know, to question before the Supreme Court the legality of these duties, because they were protective or paid this slight reverence to a doctrine in support of which South Carolina threatened war and secession. ”

“ Whether the South Carolina court's interpretation of the Full Faith and Credit Clause is a correct one is a question we have previously reserved. [3] We need not reach that question here. The Full Faith and Credit Clause, if applicable to a custody decree, would require South Carolina to recognize the Virginia order as binding only if a Virginia court would be bound by it. Recognizing this, the South Carolina Supreme Court's opinion was largely devoted to a review of Virginia cases to determine the effect in Virginia of the order of dismissal. ”

“ When it revives the plea of peculiarity does it remember its own history of nullification and secession? Is it never to reject the demagogue who proclaims exploded notions of race and distorts the Constitution of the United States? In the interval for reformation which the Supreme Court has wisely allowed must South Carolina indulge bluster and vituperation in place of summoning candor and courage? Have ignorance, poverty, and prejudice fed on each other until the white community has sunk to second-rate capacity? ”

“ This change in the qualification for voters, it is said, worked a deprivation of the rights of the accused, because the qualification of grand jurors under the constitution of 1895, they being required to be electors of the state, made eligible different persons than those who were qualified to be electors under the Constitution of 1868. As to this contention, the South Carolina supreme court held that the Constitution of 1895 laid no restriction on color or previous condition to entitle one to be an elector ”

“ The Supreme Court shall have power to issue writs or orders of injunction, mandamus, quo warranto, prohibition, certiorari, habeas corpus, and other original and remedial writs. The Court shall have appellate jurisdiction only in cases of equity, and in such appeals they shall review the findings of fact as well as the law, except in cases where the facts are settled by a jury and the verdict not set aside. The Supreme Court shall constitute a court for the correction of errors at law under such regulations as the General Assembly may prescribe. ”

“ Edwards established that the 'Fourteenth Amendment does not permit a State to make criminal the peaceful expression of unpopular views.' Ibid. As in Edwards, the South Carolina Supreme Court has here 'defined a criminal offense so as to permit conviction of the petitioners if their speech 'stirred people to anger, invited public dispute, or brought about a condition of unrest. ”

“ All impeachments shall be tried by the Senate, and when sitting for that purpose Senators shall be under oath or affirmation. No person shall be convicted except by a vote of two-thirds of all members elected. Judgment in such case shall be limited to removal from office. Impeachment proceedings, whether or not resulting in conviction, shall not be a bar to criminal prosecution and punishment according to law.
When the Governor is impeached, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or, if he be disqualified, the Senior Justice, shall preside, with a casting vote in all preliminary questions. ”

“ Fuel is continually adding to the fire at which exaltées are about to roast the judicial department." [1070]
The Governor and Legislature of South Carolina fiercely maintained the law of the State—it was to them a matter of "self-preservation." Niles was distressingly alarmed. He thought that the collision of South Carolina with the National Judiciary threatened to disturb the harmony of the Republic as much as the Missouri question had done. [1071] [Pg 384]
This, then, was the situation when the Ohio Bank case reached the Supreme Court. ”

“ Where the consequence of disqualification so directly affects First Amendment rights, surely we should not conclude that every 'personal reason' is a basis for disqualification in the absence of explicit language to that effect in the statute or decisions of the South Carolina Supreme Court. ”

“ IV The Court does not reject the South Carolina Supreme Court's decision simply on the basis of its disbelief and distrust of the legislature's findings. It also takes the opportunity to create a new scheme for regulations that eliminate all economic value. From now on, there is a categorical rule finding these regulations to be a taking unless the use they [p1047] prohibit is a background common law nuisance or property principle. ”

“ Rutledge of South Carolina wanted the state courts to be used as national courts of the first instance 7 and argued that a right of appeal to the supreme national tribunal would be quite sufficient “to secure the national rights and uniformity of judgment.” But Madison pointed out that such an arrangement would cause appeals to be multiplied most oppressively and that, furthermore, it would provide no remedy for improper verdicts resulting from local prejudices. ”

“ From the Potomack, East, nothing remains to be settled. In South Carolina, where immense simis were due, they are doing well and, in a few years, will be in a very prosperous condition. Virginia will be the kat to do what her own interests required her long since to have performed." King, I. Justice Jay, Judge Gushing, and District Judge Henry Marchant, sitting in the Circuit Court for the- Dis- trict of Rhode Island, held a law of that State to be unconstitutional as impairing the obligation of contract, in the case of Alexander Champion and Thomas Dickason V. Silas Casey. ”

“ The argument being that the Federal act of June 25, 1868 (15 Stat. at L. 73, chap. 70) , provides that the Constitutions of certain states, including South Carolina, should never be amended or changed so as to deprive any citizen or class of citizens of the United States, of the right to vote in said state, given to them by the Constitution thereof, named in the act, except for the punishment for crimes such as are now felonies at common law, whereof they shall have been duly convicted under laws equally applicable to all the states. ”

“ But, having premifed, that “the free inhabitants of each State fhall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the feveral States.” (so that, in fact a citizen of New-Hampʃhire the moment he enters South Carolina, derives from this fentence, a title to the privileges of citizenfhip in that Commonwealth alfo) the articles concludes, that “full faith and credit
1788. ”

“ It's no use arguing this thing, you must keep a keen eye upon the English niggers; and when a man pretends to dispute the right, tell him its 'contrary to law,' and to look at the statute-books; tell him it costs more to keep them than they're all worth; and if they say the law was never intended for foreign citizens, tell 'em its 'contrary to law.' South Carolina's not bound to obey the voice of the General Government, and what does she care for the federal courts? ”

“ If every sheriff in South Carolina refuses to serve a writ for a colored man and those sheriffs are kept in office year after year by the people of South Carolina, and no verdict against them for their failure of duty can be obtained before a South Carolina jury, the State of South Carolina, through the class of officers who are its representatives to afford the equal protection of the laws to that class of citizens, has denied that protection. ”

“ Against all acts which may be alleged to transcend the constitutional power of the Government, or which may be inconvenient or oppressive in their operation, the Constitution itself has prescribed the modes of redress. It is the acknowledged attribute of free institutions that under them the empire of reason and law is substituted for the power of the sword. To no other source can appeals for supposed wrongs be made consistently with the obligations of South Carolina; to no other can such appeals be made with safety at any time ”

“ There is a number of other instances, where, though jurisdiction is given to the federal court, it is not taken away from the state courts. If a man in South Carolina owes me money, I can bring suit in the courts of that state, as well as in any inferior federal court. I think gentlemen cannot but see the propriety of leaving to the general government the regulation of the inferior federal tribunals. ”

“ We've been insulted; yes, most rascally insulted by the Federal Government, and they keep it up every year. We can't get our rights. Oh! no, sir, there's no such thing in the knowledge of the Federal officers as justice for South Carolina; and you must understand, Captain, that she is the greatest State in the Union, and there a'n't nothing like her people for bravery. The political power's got North and West, the old constitution is being dissected to suit the abolitionists, and they're drawing the cordon around us faster and faster ”

“ And yet, sir, justice, I believe, is nowhere cheaper than in South Carolina. By the judicious structure of her judiciary system, the streams of justice are diffused over the whole State, and every man is completely protected in his life, liberty, property, and reputation. The courts are almost constantly in session. ”