Law of Illinois

“ The law of Illinois, relating to the record of deeds, and other instruments affecting the title to real property, differs materially from the law of nearly every other State in the Union. In most States, these instruments can only be recorded after they have been acknowledged or proved before certain designated officers, and the certificate of such acknowledgment or proof is attached. ”

“ The Illinois State Legislature obviously has novel ideas of its legislative duties. Imagine an English County Council treating seriously such fantastic rubbish as Mr. McCarthy brought before the law-makers of his State. Would it not be more to the point to look after the sons of Illinois, and to keep the hue of their resolution up to the mark? If they are laggards in love, who shall blame the British aristocrat for wooing with success the daughters of Illinois, whom their compatriot suitors abandon? ”

“ Whether or not Illinois may validly close her own courts to litigation of this kind, Illinois most assuredly cannot prescribe the subject matter jurisdiction of federal courts even when they sit in that State. Congress already has done this, 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (a) (1) , 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332 (a) (1) , and state law is powerless to enlarge, vary, or limit this requirement. The parties to this case have showed the diversity of citizenship and amount in controversy required by Congress, and therefore the federal court, by virtue of the law of its own being, has jurisdiction of their action. ”

“ Putting out of view questions of form, the principal contentions made in the supreme court of Illinois, as shown by the assignment of errors in that court, were as follows: That as under the law of the state of Illinois, an authority existing at the time the work was done was necessary to justify an assessment, a violation of the 14th Amendment would be brought about by holding that authority for the assessment was supplied by the Illinois act of 1895, since such law was enacted after the work was completed ”

“ It is the duty of the State of Illinois, to make it criminal in one of its citizens to aid, abet counsel, or advise, any person to commit a crime in her sister State,--any one violating the law would be amenable to the laws of Illinois, executed by its own tribunals. Those of Missouri could have no agency in his conviction and punishment. But if he shall go into Missouri, he owes obedience to her laws, and is liable before her courts, to be tried and punished for any crime he may commit there and a plea that he was a citizen of another State, would not avail him. ”

“ Mr. Justice BLACK announced the judgment of the Court and an opinion in which THE CHIEF JUSTICE, Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, and Mr. Justice CLARK, join.
Illinois law provides that 'Writs of error in all criminal cases are writs of right and shall be issued of course.' [1] The question presented here is whether Illinois may, consistent with the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, administer this statute so as to deny adequate appellate review to the poor while granting such review to all others. ”

“ That no freeman shall be imprisoned or disseized of his freehold, liberties, or privileges, or outlawed or exiled, or in any manner deprived of his life, liberty, or property, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land. And all lands which have been granted as a common to the inhabitants of any town, hamlet village, or corporation, by any person, body politic or corporate, or by any government having power to make such grant, shall forever remain common to the inhabitants of such tow n, hamlet, village, or corporation ”

“ Law addresses itself to actualities. It does not face actuality to suggest that Illinois affords every convicted person, financially competent or not, the opportunity to take an appeal, and that it is not Illinois that is responsible for disparity in material circumstances. Of course a State need not equalize economic conditions. A man of means may be able to afford the retention of an expensive, able counsel not within reach of a poor man's purse. ”

“ Illinois is free to consult solely her own will whether such a provision in a decree relates merely to ceremony or requires a union with a spouse legally free to marry. On that crucial issue, we are told, there is no Illinois law. By what seems to me undesirable judicial administration, the ascertainment for all I know the formulation-of Illinois law is committed to a federal court which in the very nature of things can render only a tentative and indecisive judgment. ”

“ It is the established policy of both the State and Federal Governments to treat possible conflicts between their powers in such a manner as to produce as little conflict and friction as possible. So here the procedure followed by Illinois should not be held to violate the standard of permissible process of law broadly recognized by the Fourteenth Amendment unless the Illinois procedure violates 'the very essence of a scheme of ordered liberty' and that to continue it would 'violate a 'principle of justice so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental. ”

“ It follows that the petitioners must be accorded an appeal from their conviction, either by having the State furnish them a transcript of the proceedings in the trial court, or by any other means, of which we have not been advised, that may be available under Illinois law, so that the errors of which they complain can effectively be brought for review to the Illinois Supreme Court. It is not for us to tell Illinois what means are open to the indigent and must be chosen. Illinois may prescribe any means that are within the wide area of its constitutional discretion. ”

“ But they are questions entangled in the procedural law of Illinois and in the facts and circumstances surrounding the conviction of these petitioners. The Illinois courts have never passed on them because they were never raised. ”

“ Each and every person who has been bound to service by contract or indenture in virtue of the law of Illinois territory heretofore existing, and in conformity to the provisions of the same, without fraud or collusion, shall be held to a specific performance of their contracts or indentures ”

“ While such a finding of compliance with local law is not necessarily sufficient to satisfy the requirements of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, we shall be helped, in measuring the compliance of these judgments with such due process, if we note exactly the requirements of Illinois law with which the Supreme Court of that State has found compliance. ”

“ The states are free to determine their own practice as to the assistance of counsel, subject to the general limitation that such practice shall not deprive the accused of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Accordingly, the lack of conformity of Illinois practice in 1938 to the standards illustrated by the present Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure is by means determinative of the issue before us. ”

“ Perhaps there is no principle of the common law so inapplicable to the condition of our country and the people as the one which is sought to be enforced now, for the first time, since the settlement of the State. It has been the custom of Illinois, so long that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, for the owners of stock to suffer them to run at large. ”

“ The general assembly shall have full power to exclude from the privilege of electing or being elected any person convicted of bribery, perjury, or any other infamous crime. 31. In the year 1820 and every fifth year thereafter, an enumeration of all the white inhabitants of the state shall be made in such manner as shall be directed by law. 32. All bills for raising a revenue shall originate in the house of representatives subject, however, to amendment, or rejection as in other cases. ART. III. 1. The executive power of the state shall be vested in a governor. ”

“ It is no answer that the State has a law which if enforced would give relief. The federal remedy is supplementary to the state remedy, and the latter need not be first sought and refused before the federal one is invoked. Hence the fact that Illinois by its constitution and laws outlaws unreasonable searches and seizures is no barrier to the present suit in the federal court. ”

“ It is definitely not 'well-settled Illinois law' that a waiver results in these circumstances. In all of the cases cited in the opinion of the Court and in respondent's brief the petitioner initially sought review in the intermediate appellate court. In none did he do so only after having the state supreme court deny as application for review. There is no 'well-settled Illinois law' to the effect that two applications to the state supreme court must be made in order to avoid waiver of constitutional rights. ”

“ Such an application of it would be unjust, inequitable, and unreasonable. The law has never been so applied by the courts of Illinois.
We find no error in the proceedings and decrees of the circuit court. They are therefore affirmed. ”

“ They shall not practice law, hold a position of profit, hold office under the United States or this State or unit of local government or school district or in a political party. Service in the State militia or armed forces of the United States for periods of time permitted by rule of the Supreme Court shall not disqualify a person from serving as a Judge or Associate Judge. (Source: Illinois Constitution.) ”

“ Paragraph 27 alleges that the statute takes the property without due process of law, and is therefore unconstitutional. If this vague objection (§ 27) may be taken as asserting a claim of right under the Federal Constitution, yet, in the supreme court of Illinois, so far as the record discloses, there was neither authority cited nor argument advanced in support of the constitutional objection. ”

“ Carbonneaux complained that Illinois was wholly without law or government; that the magistrates, from indolence or sinister views, had for some time been lax in the execution of their duties, and were now altogether without authority; that crimes of the greatest enormity might be committed with impunity, and a man be murdered in his own house and no one regard it; that there was neither sheriff nor prison ”

“ The business of satisfying claims was to linger [pg 105] for years, but with the opening of the land-offices it ceased to be a potent factor in retarding settlement.248
One writer says of Illinois: “The public lands have rarely sold for more than five dollars per acre, at auction. Those sold at Edwardsville in October, 1816, averaged four dollars. Private sales at the land-office are fixed by law, at two dollars per acre. The old French locations command various prices, from one to fifty dollars. ”

“ The results reached by the Illinois Supreme Court, especially when contrasted with those reached by the United States Supreme Court, exhibit an extreme exercise of the power of courts to hold legislation void because it takes the property or liberty of individuals without due process of law. ”

“ But the court refused the injunction, holding that there could be no contract and no irrepealable law upon governmental subjects, observing that legislative acts concerning public interests are necessarily public laws; that every succeeding legislature possesses the same jurisdiction and power as its predecessor ”

“ In the foregoing chapters an attempt has been made to point out certain general aspects relating to the West and to the Illinois country, with special reference to the governmental status of the old French settlements after the conquest, the extension of the English law to the conquered territory, some of the problems of the Indian and trade relations, and finally attention has been called to some of the projects for the colonization of the Illinois country after 1763. What were the actual events taking place in the Illinois after the occupation has always been problematical. ”

“ Political parties, like public men, are, as it were, public property.↑ Indeed, such defenses are evidently protected by Illinois law. See Ill.Const. Art. II, § 17, guaranteeing the right of the people to apply for redress of grievances. And see People v. Fuller, 238 Ill. 116, 125, 87 N.E. 336, 338-339, on the defense of 'fair comment' in criminal libel prosecutions.↑ The present constitution, adopted in 1870, is Illinois' third. ”

“ Such is the law in Illinois, where this land is situated, (Comstock v. Hitt, 37 Ill. 542; Fowler v. Fay, 62 Ill. 375,) as well as the law in other states, (Belmont v. Coman, 22 N. Y. 438; Fiske v. Tolman, 124 Mass. 254.) ”

“ The inhabitants of said city, by the name and style aforesaid, shall have power to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all courts of law and equity, and all actions whatsoever ”