Territorial court

“ But we hold that the acts of the legislature are not the only law to which we must look for the powers of any of these Territorial courts. The general history of our jurisprudence and the organic act itself are also to be considered, and any act of the Territorial legislature inconsistent with the latter must be held void. ”

“ This section embodies the view thus expressed by Mr. Justice CLIFFORD, speaking for the court, in Baker v. Morton, 12 Wall. 150, 153: 'Whenever a territory is admitted into the Union as a state, the cases pending in the territorial courts of a federal character or jurisdiction are transferred to the proper federal court, but all such as are not cognizable in the federal courts are transferred to the tribunals of the new state. ”

“ Our jurisdiction to review judgments of territorial courts is found in the statute approved April 7, 1874, chapter 80, entitled "An Act Concerning the Practice in Territorial Courts, and Appeals Therefrom." ”

“ Courts of the Territories are legislative courts, properly speaking, and are not District Courts of the United States. We have often held that vesting a territorial court with jurisdiction similar to that vested in the District Courts of the United States does not make it a 'District Court of the United States.' Reynolds v. ”

“ It can scarcely be necessary to observe, that the rule of the Federal courts, to follow the decisions of the highest State court in the construction of the local statutes regulating practice in suits, has never been held to apply to the Territorial courts, which are made subject to the appellate and revisory power of this court by act of Congress, which courts are created by Federal legislation, and, indeed, the legislation of the Territory wholly derived from Federal authority ”

“ There are within the territorial limits of each State two governments, restricted in their spheres of action, but independent of each other, and supreme within their respective spheres. Each has its separate departments; each has its distinct laws, and each has its own tribunals for their enforcement. Neither government can intrude within the jurisdiction, or authorize any interference therein by its judicial officers with the action of the other. ”

“ In other words the power conferred rests upon a real, not an imaginary, base. This being true, we are of opinion that a Federal court has not jurisdiction over a person not within its territorial jurisdiction, or over property in the custody of such person, not within such territorial jurisdiction, merely because a state court may, as to such person and such property, because of some proceeding pending before it, have the authority to treat both the persons and property as constructively present and subject to its jurisdiction. ”

“ Whenever Congress has proceeded to organize a government for any of the Territories, it has merely instituted a general system of courts therefor, and has committed to the Territorial assembly full power, subject to a few specified or implied conditions, of supplying all details of legislation necessary to put the system into operation, even to the defining of the jurisdiction of the several courts. ”

“ This uniformity of construction by so many Territorial legislatures of the organic acts in relation to their legislative authority, especially when taken in connection with the fact that none of these jury laws have been disapproved by Congress, though any of them would be annulled by such disapproval, confirms the opinion, warranted by the plain language of the organic act itself, that the whole subject-matter of jurors in the Territories is committed to Territorial regulation. ”

“ We cannot believe that Congress intended after territorial or state organization to require the guardian to procure the approval and order of a court before disposition of the ward's lands, and before the organization of a territory or state to permit the guardian, who was required to be appointed by the United States Court for the Indian Territory, which court had jurisdiction over the sale of the lands of the ward upon application of the guardian, to dispose of the ward's interests in lands without judicial approval. ”

“ But today's ruling, departing from that policy, is that the writ can issue only when the place of confinement lies within the limits of the court's territorial jurisdiction. That purely geographic fact and it alone determines the court's competence to act. And this is not merely as a matter of venue or of accommodation in the exercise of authority among tribunals of coordinate power, allowing room for some adaptability to varying circumstances. It is one crucial between competence to act and total impotence. All other considerations are put to one side. ”

“ Similar laws have been passed and acted upon in other Territories, organized under similar organic acts. The attorney appointed by the President for the Territory has been accustomed to attend to the business of the General Government, the same as is done by United States district attorneys in the several States; and the attorney-general and district attorneys of the Territory have attended to the business of the latter, and prosecuted crimes committed against the Territorial laws. ”

“ I. We perceive no error in the limitation which the Commission made on the territorial scope of appellant's operations.
Appellant argues that if it may be authorized to serve all points in one state, say Georgia, without showing that every point in Georgia had been previously served by it, then it must be granted like authority as respects the 100 mile radius around Birmingham. That is a non sequitur. Prior operations to several points in a region may or may not justify the Commission in authorizing service throughout the whole region. ”

“ As our power to review depends upon the acts of Congress, which it is beyond the authority of a territory, by forms of legal procedure, to modify or change, it results that, whatever may be the forms of procedure prevailing in the territory for the review of judgments or decrees, nothing in the territorial laws or procedure can have the effect of conferring upon this court the power to consider causes coming from the territory by piecemeal ”

“ The parties do contemplate the immediate licensing by WELBEHAGEN of rights for the United States of America at a price which should permit WELBEHAGEN to function under this agreement economically. PMSA acknowledges that it will be impossible for WELBEHAGEN to make payments beyond those provided for and in the manner provided for until and unless additional territorial licensing or sale by WELBEHAGEN take place for geographical areas other than the United States of America. ”

“ The contention is that the law giving jurisdiction, as against a person not a citizen of the district where suit is brought to remove a cloud from the title to real estate situated therein, applies only to cases where there are two or more defendants, at least one of whom must be found in the district where the suit is brought; that the jurisdiction exists to entertain a suit, like the one before us, where there are two or more defendants, but not where there is only one. ”

“ Each state has the right to make political subdivisions of its territory for municipal purposes, and to regulate their local government. As respects the administration of justice, it may establish one system of courts for cities and another for rural districts, one system for one portion of its territory and another system for another portion. ”

“ If, on the score of expense, the Government deems it expedient to adopt this system throughout the colony, it might nevertheless be immediately enforced at the centres of population which are connected with the railway system. If the judges of the Supreme Court are unable through pressure of work to find time to go on circuit, the Government should consider the desirableness of appointing a district judge, with jurisdiction in criminal matters, and a limited jurisdiction in civil cases, thus greatly reducing the pressure of civil business, which is now sent up from country towns. ”

“ The position taken in support of the jurisdiction assumes that the admission of the State, and consequent transfer of all actions and causes of action belonging to the State authorities, had the effect, not only to separate the Federal from the State subjects of jurisdiction, but also to remodel the judicial system of the Territory itself, and adapt its jurisdiction to the trial of Federal causes,-assumptions that need only to be stated to carry with them their refutation. ”