Temple Court

“ No one can walk through Fountain Court without thinking sometimes of Ruth Pinch.
Of the great lawyers who have occupied chambers in the Temple nothing can here be said. The settlement of the lawyers has now lasted for nearly six hundred years—almost four times as long as the tenure of the Knights Templars, and for the greater part of that time we find in every generation legal names which still survive in history, and which have been concerned with the making of history. ”

“ There is not a vestige of evidence to support it. Cf. Thompson v. City of Louisville, 362 U.S. 199, 80 S.Ct. 624, 4 L.Ed.2d 654. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeals refused to reverse this illegal conviction and dismissed petitioner's appeal on the ground that, while he gave an oral notice of appeal and filed an appeal bond at the end of his trial, he did not file a written notice of appeal within the 10-day period specified by Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 37 (a) (2) . ”

“ And so do many Sons of the rich Merchants, who, returning from travel abroad, have more designs upon their own pleasure, and the vanity of appearing, than upon the Service of their Country; Or, if they pretend to enter into that, it is rather by the Army than the State. And all these are generally desirous to see a Court in their Country, that they may value themselves at home, by the Qualities they have learnt abroad; and make a Figure, which agrees better with their own Humour, and the manner of Courts, than with the Customs and Orders, that prevail in more Popular Governments. ”

“ The Eschevins are the Court of Justice in every Town. They are at Amsterdam nine in Number; of which Seven are chosen Annually; but two of the preceding year continue in Office. A double number is named by the Senate, out of which the Burgomasters now chuse, as the Prince of Orange did in the former Constitution. They are Soveraign Judges in all Criminal Causes. In Civil, after a certain value, there lies Appeal to the Court of Justice of the Province. But they pass sentence of Death upon no Man, without first advising with the Burgomasters ”

“ The whole Nation is indeed satisfied that our Court was at that juncture too much influenced by French Councils; but few will be brought to believe that the French knew more of our own Affairs than we our selves did. ”

“ A sense of awful responsibility weighed upon the hearts and consciences of the judges. The services of the synagogue were not conducted with deeper fervor or greater religious solemnity than were the proceedings of a capital trial in the great Judgment Hall of the Sanhedrin. Certain sacred maxims flamed forever like beacon lights along the pathway of the members of the court during the solemn deliberations. "A judge," says the Talmud, "should always consider that a sword threatens him from above, and destruction yawns at his feet." ”

“ But it would have been more satisfactory if, in reviving a long-disused power, the Archbishop had been able to go behind the Watson case, and to show more certainly that the jurisdiction which he claimed and proposed to exercise in conformity with that case had, like the jurisdiction of other great courts of the Church and realm, been clearly and customarily exercised long before that case.
The appearance of this great tribunal among us, a distinctly spiritual court of the highest dignity, cannot fail to be memorable. It is too early to forecast what its results may be. ”

“ Sometimes the burghers found themselves called to defend against the ecclesiastical lawyers a right which had been proved essential to their freedom—the right of being tried only in their own courts—and the commonalty would make ordinances that no process-server should carry or cite elsewhere men or women living in the borough, and the jury of the Leet Court kept watch and made their presentment of summoners, commissary, and clerks who had dealt lightly with the liberties or goods of the citizens, or called them to distant courts. ”

“ It is still more strange to hear a judge, whose name is known the world over, gravely charging a jury as to the value, as evidence of identity, of a wart under the tail of a costermonger's donkey, the ownership of which is in dispute. Yet, like every feature of an English court, it is eminently practical and free from form or affectation.
The highly paid judges of the High Court, sit in the smallest case; the idea seems to be that if a man desires to assert his rights, however insignificant, it is the duty of the Government to afford him the opportunity. ”

“ But it must be remembered, that the real question here is not, whether this great writ shall be freely and efficiently used, but whether our appellate power is large enough to extend to this case. The Circuit Court has power, upon its own views of the law, to inflict, not only imprisonment, but even the punishment of death, without appellate control by this court. Even when it is alleged, that the proceedings of a circuit court, by which a citizen is imprisoned, are coram non judice and void, its judgment is final, and no relief can be had here, by writ of error or appeal, or by habeas corpus. ”

“ When, therefore, it was conceded on the argument that if the affair at Lathrop had taken place in the court-room during the sitting of the court, the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court would be unquestionable, it is difficult for me to see why the whole question of federal jurisdiction was not embraced in that concession. Assassinating a judge on the bench would no more obstruct and defeat public justice than assassinating him on his way to the bench. In each case he is proceeding in the line of official duty imposed on him by law and his official oath. ”

“ Even my counsel, the Hon. Henry R. Selden, who has argued my cause so ably, so earnestly, so unanswerably before your honor, is my political sovereign. Precisely as no disfranchised person is entitled to sit upon a jury, and no woman is entitled to the franchise, so, none but a regularly admitted lawyer is allowed to practice in the courts, and no woman can gain admission to the bar—hence, jury, judge, counsel, must all be of the superior class.
Judge Hunt—The Court must insist—the prisoner has been tried according to the established forms of law. ”

“ It got hotter rapidly; for two of the Templeton police appeared on the scene and looked hard at the front public bench. Then the solicitors’ seats filled up, and the magistrates’ clerk bustled in to his table. And before these alarming arrivals had well brought the perspiration to our heroes’ brows, the appearance of two magistrates on the bench sent up the temperature to tropical.
“Order in the court!” cried the usher.
Whereupon Duffield, in his excitement, dropped a chocolate on the floor and turned pale as if expecting immediate sentence of death. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In all the cases the petitioners are imprisoned under the judgments against them; and each one insisting that the Circuit Court, in his case, acted without jurisdiction, and that his imprisonment is, therefore, unlawful and subversive of his rights as a citizen, has petitioned this court for a writ of habeas corpus, annexing to his petition a transcript of the record of the proceedings against him ”

“ That in so far as the law can regard them, the powers of the church judicatories are derived solely from the consent of the members of the church, as expressed in their fundamental law; that they are not 'courts' and have no 'jurisdiction' in the strict sense of the terms-these terms necessarily implying the existence of a power conferred by and vested in functionaries of the state. They are not 'courts' except of the parties' own choosing. ”

“ Whatever may be the power of the states in respect of grand and petit juries, it is firmly settled that the Constitution absolutely forbids the trial and conviction, in a Federal civil tribunal, of any one charged with crime, otherwise than upon the presentment or indictment of a grand jury, and the unanimous verdict of a petit jury, composed, as at common law, of twelve jurors. ”

“ When confirmed, it is altogether beyond the jurisdiction or inquiry of any civil tribunal whatever, unless it shall be in a case in which the court had not jurisdiction over the subject-matter or charge, or one in which, having jurisdiction over the subject-matter, it has failed to observe the rules prescribed by the statute for its exercise. In such cases, as has just been said, all of the parties to such illegal trial are trespassers upon a party aggrieved by it, and he may recover damages from them on a proper suit in a civil court, by the verdict of a jury. ”

“ It is that person out of possession, who set up false claims to land, may by a suit in ejectment, which is the legal and proper mode of trying title, have that claim brought to this test. The act provides that such a judgment is conclusive against all the parties; and thus the purpose of the law to quiet title by a verdict and judgment in such cases, is rendered effectual. The language of the code of New York is identical with that of Virginia on this subject. And the construction we have given to it was held to be the true one, by the Supreme Court of the former State. ”

“ On one shelf of it is seated a supposititious Judge, surrounded by some half-dozen pseudo female spectators; the bottom shelf being occupied by counsel, attorney, crier of the court, and plaintiff. The special jury are severally called in to occupy the right-hand shelf; and when the cupboard is quite full, all the forms of returning a verdict are gone through. This is for the plaintiff! Mr. Aubrey is ruined; and Mr. Titmouse jumps about, at the imminent risk of breaking the cupboard to pieces, having already knocked down a counsel or two, and rolled over his own attorney. ”

“ I was now served with a notice, that the writ would be executed at Devizes, at seven o'clock in the evening, on the third day of the sessions, and that counsel would attend. I merely said to the attorney, who served me with the notice, "well! if the Court of King's Bench has so ruled it, so it must be." The sessions arrived; the third day came; and, as I did not appear in the town, it was generally understood, amongst the barristers and attorneys, that there would be no sport, as I should make no attempt to obtain another verdict, in opposition to the opinion of the Court of King's Bench. ”

“ New York extends an appeal on law and fact as matter of right. If there were a tendency to convict improperly, the Judicial Council, which includes the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, which courts review these cases, would know it. Despite the Council's desire to abolish this jury, no such reasons wre ever as signed. No statistics are produced to show that special juries have been more often reversed on the facts than ordinary ones. ”

“ We are constantly called upon to consider the alleged misconduct of a prosecutor as vitiating the fairness of a particular trial or the inflamed state of public opinion in a particular case as undermining the constitutional right to due process. Again, in the series of cases coming here from the state courts, in which due process was invoked to enfoce separation of church and state, decision certainly turned on the particularities of the specific situations before the Court. It is needless to multiply instances. ”

“ Provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any Circuit Judge holding District Court or serving in the Commerce Court, or otherwise, as provided for and authorized in other sections of this act.'
Sections 751 and 752, Rev. Stats. give authority to grant writs of habeas corpus only to judges and justices of the courts therein specified-Supreme, Circuit and District. The Judicial Code abolished the Circuit Courts. Only justices of the Supreme Court and judges of District Courts remain within the ambit of the statute. ”

“ If relief on equitable grounds is to be obtained it is right that it should be sought by a formal suit upon adequate pleadings and should be granted only after a trial of issues according to the usual course of the trial of questions of fact. A court of first instance is the appropriate tribunal, and the only tribunal, equipped for such a trial. Appellate courts have neither the power nor the means to that end. ”

“ How does it appear that inferior courts are subordinate to those that are superior; sessions to presbyteries, and presbyteries to synods?
Ans. The true light of nature (which is proved, chap, iii., to be one of those ways, whereby a thing is of divine right) teacheth us, that, if we be injured by an inferior court, we may appeal to a higher court for redress, if there be one. As in the Jewish church there was evidently a subordination of judicatories, so that those injured in the synagogue might appeal to the Sanhedrin, Deut. ”

“ Prior to 1873 there were a large number of courts with various titles, which had grown up through centuries of custom and legislation. But they were nearly all abolished by an Act of Parliament, or rather their functions were merged into the present far simpler system. In this radical re-arrangement, however, two courts—the highest and the lowest—survived; the House of Lords and the County Courts remain as they were.
Thus came into being the Supreme Court of [88] Judicature, composed of two branches—the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal. ”