This we are required to do without the exercise of jurisdiction. The City of Washington shall be divided into three divisions or wards, as now divided by the Levy Court for the county, for the purposes of assessment; but the number may be increased hereafter, as in the wisdom of the City Council shall seem most conducive to the general interest and convenience. If such be the constitution, it is the duty of the Court to bow with respectful submission to its provisions. It has been said, that the States cannot make it unlawful to buy that which Congress has made it lawful to sell. The first election to be held by three commissioners to be appointed in each ward by the Mayor of the City, and at such place in each ward as he may direct; and all subsequent elections shall be held by a like number, of Commissioners, to be appointed in each ward by the two boards, in joint meeting, which several appointments, except the first, shall be at least ten days previous to the day of each election. Unknown, Supreme Court Database ID: But if the Court should be of opinion, that the statute or act of the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, prohibiting such sale, is valid, notwithstanding the said acts of Congress, then judgment to be entered, that the defendants are guilty, and that the Commonwealth recover against them one hundred dollars and costs. [2], Philip and Mendes Cohen were brothers and managed the Norfolk, Virginia branch of Cohens Lottery and Exchange Office of Baltimore, Maryland. Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) Those who were inhibited from commencing a suit against a State, or from prosecuting one which might be commenced before the adoption of the amendment, were persons who might probably be its creditors. Mr. D.B. 264, 404 (1821) (Marshall, C. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall be in force for two years from the passing thereof, and from thence to the end of the next session of Congress thereafter, and no longer. 257, 6 Wheat. This observation is not made for the purpose of contending, that the legislature may "apportion the judicial power between the Supreme and inferior Courts according to its will." The Supreme Court accordingly has recognized that a dismissal 264, 404 (1821), "[w]e have no more right to decline the exercise of jurisdiction which is given, than to usurp that which is not given." Thus, in this case, we must apply the well-established standards for determining whether a case is moot, and un-der those standards, we still have a live case before us. States may legislate in conformity to their opinions, and may enforce those opinions by penalties. To confine, therefore, the general expressions which give appellate jurisdiction to the Supreme Court, to appeals from the subordinate federal Courts, instead of allowing their extension to the State Courts, would be to abridge the latitude of the terms, in subversion of the intent, contrary to every sound rule of interpretation.". In such cases the constitution and the law must be compared and construed. The powers of the Union, on the great subjects of war, peace, and commerce, and on many others, are in themselves limitations of the sovereignty of the States, but in addition to these, the sovereignty of the States is surrendered in many instances where the surrender can only operate to the benefit of the people, and where, perhaps, no other power is conferred on Congress than a conservative power to maintain the principles established in the constitution. The Court decided and we think very properly, that the legislature could not give original jurisdiction in such a case. It does not in any manner act upon the parties, it acts only on the record. If it be to maintain that a case arising under the constitution, or a law, must be one in which a party comes into Court to demand something conferred on him by the constitution or a law, we think the construction too narrow. If these be the parties, it is entirely unimportant what may be the subject of controversy. 264, 411-12, 5 L.Ed. As the party who has obtained a judgment as out of Court, and may, therefore, not know that his cause is removed, common justice requires that notice of the fact should be given him. The third point has been presented in different forms by the gentlemen who have argued it. The opinion of the Federalist has always been considered as of great authority. From Free Law Project, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Any person shall be eligible to the office of Mayor who is a free white male citizen of the United States, who shall have attained to the age of thirty years, and who shall be a bona fide owner of a freehold estate in the said City, and shall have been a resident in the said City two years immediately preceding his election, and no other person shall be eligible to the said office. View Enlarged Image Download: PDF (5.6 MB) GIF (5.9 KB) Go About this Item Title U.S. Reports: Cohens v. Virginia, 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) This Court has, constitutionally, appellate jurisdiction under the Judiciary Act of 1789, c. 20, 25, from the final judgment or decree of the highest court of law or equity of a state, having jurisdiction of the subject matter of the suit, where is drawn in question the validity of a treaty, or statute of, or an authority exercised under, the United State, and the decision is against their validity; or where is drawn in question the validity of a statute of, or an authority exercised under, any state, on the ground of their being repugnant to the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United States, and the decision is in favor of such, their validity; or of the constitution, or of treaty, or statute of, or commission held under the United States, and the decision is against the title, right, privilege, or exemption specially set up or claimed, by either party under such clause of the constitution, treaty, statute, or commission. The said commissioners shall, before they receive any ballot, severally take the following oath or affirmation, to be administered by the Mayor of the City, or any Justice of the Peace for the county of Washington: 'I, A. The State of Virginia moved to dismiss the appeal, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. ", " Sec. The universally received opinion is, that no suit can be commenced *412 or prosecuted against the United States; that the judiciary act does not authorize such suits. Although they show that there may be violations of the constitution, of which the Courts can take no cognizance, they do not show that an interpretation more restrictive than the words themselves import ought to be given to this article. They are limited by the subject. The counsel for the defendant in error have stated that the cases which arise under the constitution must grow out of those provisions which are capable *379 of self-execution, examples of which are to be found in the 2d section of the 4th article, and in the 10th section of the 1st article. The Court said that the Constitution's framers had decided to "confer on the judicial department the power of construing the Constitution and laws of the Union in every case, in the last resort, and of preserving them from all violation from every quarter, so far as judicial decisions can preserve them.". A person making a seizure under an act of Congress, may be indicted as a trespasser, if force has been employed, and of this a jury may judge. Is it unreasonable that it should also be empowered to decide on the judgment of a State tribunal enforcing such unconstitutional law? In discussing the extent of the judicial power, the Federalist says, "Here another question occurs: what relation would subsist between the national and State Courts in these instances of concurrent jurisdiction? and, whether the act of Assembly, on which the prosecution is founded, be not itself invalid? Agreeably to the remark already made, the national and State systems are to be regarded as ONE WHOLE. If the intention be merely to distinguish cases arising under the constitution, from those arising under a law, for the sake of precision in the application of this argument, these propositions will not be controverted. - 6 - res, a second court will not assume in rem jurisdiction over the same res." Id. 264 (1821). . 74 ) The Founders' Constitution Volume 4, Article 6, Clause 2, Document 35 Were any one State of the Union to pass a law for trying a criminal in a Court not created by itself, in a place not within its jurisdiction, and direct the sentence to be executed without its territory, we should all perceive and acknowledge its incompetency to such a course of legislation. 22 Id. And if a State has surrendered any portion of its sovereignty, the question whether a liability to suit be a part of this portion, depends on the instrument by which the surrender is made. It is, among other things, enacted and declared, that no person or persons shall buy, or sell, within the said Commonwealth, any lottery, or part or share of a lottery ticket, except in such lottery or lotteries as may be authorized by the laws thereof, and the said James Nimmo, as attorney aforesaid, further giveth the Court to understand and be informed, that P. J. and M. J. Cohen, traders and partners, late of the parish of Elizabeth River, and, borough of Norfolk aforesaid, being evil disposed persons, and totally regardless of the laws and statutes of the said Commonwealth, since the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty, that is to say, on the first day of June, in that year, and within the said Commonwealth of Virginia, to-wit, at the parish of Elizabeth River, in the said borough of Norfolk, and within the jurisdiction of this Court, did then and there unlawfully vend, sell, and deliver to a certain William H. Jennings, two half lottery tickets, and four quarter lottery tickets, of the National Lottery, to be drawn in the City of Washington, that being a lottery not authorized by the laws of this Commonwealth, to the evil example of all other persons, in the like case offending, and against the form of the act of the General Assembly, in that case made and provided. *430 The jurisdiction of the Court, if acknowledged, goes no farther. The circumstances, that the lottery cannot be drawn without the permission of the President, and that this resource is to be used only for important improvements, have been relied on as giving to this corporate power a more extensive operation than is given to those with which it is associated. A case in law or equity consists of the right of the one party, as well as of the other, and may truly be said to arise under the constitution or a law of the United States, whenever its correct decision depends on the construction of either. The counsel who opened the cause said, that the want of jurisdiction was shown by the subject matter of the case. This would be a case arising under *403 the constitution, and would be the very case now before the Court. 264, 430 (1821). We think it will not. 264, 404 (1821). Cohens v. Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the U.S. ", " Sec. 6 Wheat. Its course cannot always be tranquil. In opposition to it, the counsel who made this point has presented in a great variety of forms, the idea already noticed, that the federal and State Courts must, of necessity, and from the nature of the constitution, be in all things totally distinct and independent of each other. In the first, their jurisdiction depends on the character of the cause, whoever may be the parties. After bestowing on this subject the most attentive consideration, the Court can perceive no reason founded on the character of the parties for introducing an exception which the constitution has not made, and we think that the judicial power, as originally given, extends to all cases arising under the constitution or a law of the United States, whoever may be the parties. A more important, a much more interesting object, was the preservation of the constitution and laws of the United States, so far as they can be preserved by judicial authority, and therefore the jurisdiction of the Courts of the Union was expressly extended to all cases arising under that constitution and those laws. These abstract propositions are to be determined; for he who demands decision without permitting inquiry, affirms that the decision he asks does not depend on inquiry. This proposition need not be enforced. ", " Sec. The argument is, that it could not, and the very clause which is urged to prove, that the Circuit Court could give no judgment in the case, is also urged to prove, that its judgment is irreversible. If such agents were to act out of the District, there would be, probably, some provision made for such a state of things, and in making such provisions Congress would examine its power to make them. The constitution gave to every person having a claim upon a State, a right to submit his case to the Court of the nation. The words are broad enough to comprehend all cases of this description, in whatever Court they may be decided. The reason of this maxim is obvious. The U.S. Supreme Court has the power to review decisions of State courts in matters involving the U.S. Constitution and federal law. *382 With the ample powers confided to this supreme government, for these interesting purposes, are connected many express and important limitations on the sovereignty of the States, which are made for the same purposes. Cohens v. Virginia - 19 U.S. (6 Wheat.) ", " Sec. Yes. The answer which has been given to this argument, does not deny its truth, but insists that confidence is reposed, and may be safely reposed, in the State institutions, and that, if they shall ever become so insane or so wicked as to seek the destruction of the government, they may accomplish their object by refusing to perform the functions assigned to them. If we apply this principle, the correctness of which we believe will not be controverted, to the distributive clause under consideration, the result, we think, would be this: the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, in cases where a State is a party, refers to those cases in which, according to the grant of power made in the preceding clause, jurisdiction might be exercised in consequence of the character of the party, and an original suit might be instituted in any of the federal Courts; not to those cases in which an original suit might not be *399 instituted in a federal Court. Foreign consuls frequently assert, in our Prize Courts, the claims of their fellow subjects. The laws must be executed by individuals acting within the several States. Id. It may be true, that the partiality of the State tribunals, in ordinary controversies between a State and its citizens, was not apprehended, and therefore the judicial power of the Union was not extended to such cases, but this was not the sole nor the greatest object for which this department was created. Virginia asserted that it had an unreviewable right to interpret and apply federal law as it saw fit. It marks, with lines too strong to be mistaken, the characteristic distinction between the government of the Union, and those of the States. The Court, therefore, had jurisdiction over the appeal from the Virginia courts. to decide questions of state law whenever necessary to the rendition of a judgment." Meredith v. No claim against it of any description is asserted or prosecuted. It is clearly in its commencement the suit of a State against an individual, which suit is transferred to this Court, not for the purpose of asserting any claim against the State, but for the purpose of asserting a constitutional defence against a claim made by a State. If, upon this case, the Court shall be of opinion, that the acts of Congress before mentioned were valid, and on the true construction of these acts, the lottery ticket sold by the said defendants as aforesaid, might lawfully be sold within the State of Virginia, notwithstanding the act or statute of the General Assembly of Virginia prohibiting such sale, then judgment to be entered for the defendants. Without such words, we cannot suppose that Congress designed to give to the acts of the Corporation any other effect, beyond its limits, than attends every act having the sanction of local law, when any thing depends upon it which is to be transacted elsewhere. It is not probable that *446 such an agent would be employed in the execution of a lottery established by Congress, but when it acts, not as the agent for carrying into effect a lottery established by Congress, but in its own corporate capacity, from its own corporate powers, it is reasonable to suppose that its acts were intended to partake of the nature of that capacity and of those powers, and, like all its other acts, be merely local in its nature. Neither of these consequences ought, without evident necessity, to be involved, the latter would be entirely inadmissible, as it would defeat some of the most important and avowed purposes of the proposed government, and would essentially embarrass its measures. In case vacancies shall occur in the Council, the chamber in which the same may happen shall supply the same by an election by ballot from the three persons next highest on the list to those elected at the preceding election, and a majority of the whole number of the chamber in which such vacancy may happen, shall be necessary to make an election. So, too, in the same clause, the jurisdiction of the Court is declared to be original, "in cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls." The judicial power is not "to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, &c.". It is in these words. It removes the record into the supervising tribunal. The argument founded on this fact would seem rather to prove the subordination of the parts to the whole, than the complete independence of any one of them. Though united in the same tribunal, they are never confounded with each other. 264 264 (1821) Cohens v. Virginia. and M.J. Cohen were charged with selling tickets for the National Lottery in Virginia.
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