Appellate jurisdiction

“ Whether their authority shall be original or appellate, or both, is not declared. All this seems to be left to the discretion of the Legislature. And this being the case, I perceive at present no impediment to the establishment of an appeal from the State Courts to the subordinate National tribunals; and many advantages attending the power of doing it may be imagined. It would diminish the motives to the multiplication of Fœderal Courts, and would admit of arrangements calculated to contract the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. ”

“ And in all those cases where the general government has jurisdiction in civil questions, the proposed constitution not only makes no provision for trial by jury in the first instance, but, by its appellate jurisdiction, absolutely takes away that inestimable privilege; since it expressly declares the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law and fact. ”

“ It is not enough that an appellant could have launched his attack upon the validity of the statute itself as applied; if he has failed to do so we are without jurisdiction over the appeal. The Judicial Code was intended to restrict our obligatory appellate jurisdiction to a narrow class of cases, and to foreclose an appeal as of right whenever the prescribed conditions have not been rigorously fulfilled. ”

“ As the language now reads, the Court has appellate jurisdiction over any three-judge court order 'granting or pernying * * * an interlocutory or permanent injunction.' On its face, this language is subject to the construction that interlocutory orders denying permanent as well as preliminary injunctions can be appealed to this Court. However, such a construction would involve an expansion of this Court's mandatory appellate jurisdiction over that granted by the clear language of the prior statute. ”

“ But the appellate power of this court is broader than its original, and generally-that is, in most cases-it may be said that the issue of a writ of habeas corpus by us, when it is directed to one of our inferior courts, is an exercise of our appellate jurisdiction. Without going at large into a discussion of its extent, it is sufficient for the present to notice the fact that the exercise of the appellate power is not limited by the Constitution to any particular form or mode. It is not alone by appeal or by writ of error that it may be invoked. ”

“ The distinction between such a power, and that of giving appellate jurisdiction in a few specified cases in the decision of which the nation takes an interest, is too obvious not to be perceived by all. ”

“ In all proceedings in the territorial courts in the nature of suits in equity, therefore, as well as in those proceedings in the nature of actions at common law, in which no trial by jury is had, either because a jury has been duly waived or because the issues tried are issues of law only, the appellate jurisdiction of this court must be invoked by appeal, and not by writ of error. ”

“ The jurisdiction invoked is, in its nature, appellate; and there is no other mode provided for its exercise in the case at bar than by the writ prayed. Though the petition is the first step taken by the Commonwealth against the judge, the proceeding is not on that account an original suit. The petition is merely the process by which our appellate jurisdiction is invoked.
It is well settled that the writ of mandamus will issue to correct the action of subordinate or inferior courts or judicial officers, where they have exceeded their jurisdiction, and there is no other adequate remedy. ”

“ If three judges are required to hear the claims which are made, then we have direct appellate jurisdiction to review their decision, even though it be on non-constitutional grounds. If three judges are not required in view of the complaint, and the case is determinable by a single judge, we have no jurisdiction by way of direct appeal under § 1253, even though the decision be a constitutional one. ”

“ Appellate jurisdiction, in its strictest sense, as exercised under the Judiciary Act, is certainly conferred upon the Circuit Courts in four classes of cases by the express words of the Bankrupt Act, without any resort to construction: (1.) By appeal from the final decree of the District Courts in suits in equity commenced and prosecuted in the District Courts by virtue of the jurisdiction created by the third clause of the second section of the act. ”

“ By the fifteenth section of the judiciary act of March 3, 1891, (26 Stat. 826, c. 517,) the circuit courts of appeals, in cases in which their judgments were made final by the act, were empowered to exercise appellate jurisdiction over the judgments, orders, or decrees of the supreme courts of the several territories ”

“ There is a further principle, also supported by the history of federal appellate jurisdiction, that importantly pertains to the present problem. That is the concept that in the federal jurisprudence, at least, [8] appeals by the Government in criminal cases are something unusual, exceptional, not favored. The history shows resistance of the Court to the opening of an appellate route for the Government until it was plainly provided by the Congress, and after that a close restriction of its uses to those authorized by the statute. ”

“ These considerations seem to require the construction that the right of appeal attaches equally to all judgments of the Circuit Court, unless there be something in the clause defining the appellate jurisdiction which demands the restricted interpretation. ”

“ Moreover, in a limited sense, form is substance with respect to ascertaining the existence of appellate jurisdiction. While it is always necessary to categorize a situation realistically, to place a given order according to its real effect, it remains true that the categories themselves were defined by the Congress in terms of form. Many interlocutory decisions of a trial court may be of grave importance to a litigant, yet are not amenable to appeal at the time entered, and some are never satisfactorily reviewable. ”

“ It is true that repeals by implication are not favored, but we cannot escape the conclusion that, tested by its scope, its obvious purpose, and its terms, the act of March 3, 1891, covers the whole subject-matter under consideration, and furnishes the exclusive rule in respect of appellate jurisdiction on appeal, writ of error, or certificate. ”