The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-08-28
Communicated
Lawyers' Test Oath.

In the nrst week of the last January
term of the Supreme Court of Appeals OF
West Virginia, application was made to
the Court to allow certain parties to
qualify as attorneys in that Court,
without taking what is commonly
termed the Lawyer Test Oath. The
points made were briefly these:
l. The Supreme Court of the United
ates has decided the Lawyers Test
Oath to be unconstitutional and void,
while the Court of Appeals of West
Virginia overruled this decision of the
Supreme Court and have declared the
same oath to be constitutional and
valid. The applicants, however, con-
tended that the Court of Appeals at the
terms of this anomalous decision was
composed of only one Appellate Judge
and one Circuit Judge, and that the de-
cision is not therefore of binding au-
thority, and is merely the opinion Of
one Judge in a court composed of three
Judges.
2. Since the decision of the Court of
Appeals, the 14th amendment to to the
Constitution has been adopted, which,
among other things, contains the fol-
lowing provision:
"SEC. l. All persons born or natural
lied in the United States, and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
the United States and of the State
wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges and immunities
of citizens of the United States"
Under this section of the Constitution
the applicants contend that they are
citizens of the United States, and that
the State of West Virginia cannot Cen
force any law" which abridges their
privilege and immunity to practice law,
that privilege being common to all the
citizens of the United States who have
shown that they have the necessary quail
itications.
Now, it is entirely possible that the
present Court of Appeals may decide
that they will nullify the Constitution
of the United States as expOunded by
the Supreme Court, and that they will
refuse to obey the l4th Amendment.
We know of nothing to prevent them,
except their oath of office, and the
wholesome Indignation of their COZ
stituents, after the fast expiring bitter
- 10 hnl hnp lxI
passed away. But the object of the
present writing is not to complain of
what may be the decision of the Court,
but TO complain that the Court has neg
lected and refused to render any de-
cision at all While it is barely posi-
BILE that a majority of the Court may
honestly think that they should over
rule the decision of the Supreme Court
of the United States, and should nullify
the l4th Amendment, yet each member
of the Court must know and does know,
that these applicants are entitled to a
decision.
Doubtless to these applicants, and to
q number of other persons similarly sit
uated, this motion is not child's play.
1t cost them time and money to make
it. The result is TO them momentous.
If they cannot obtain the poor privilege
of making living for themselves and
families in the only manner that their
education and learning has fitted them,
if the Constitution of the United States,
the decisions of the Supreme Court and
the Constitutional Amendments are TO
be forever, to them, dead letter, then
they are entitled to know the fact, and
to know it speedily, so that they may
at once join that large and steadily in
creasinS band of emigrants who are
daily moving out of the State and going
to other States, who by their laws and
decisions recognize the fact that those
who lately made war against the United
States still retain portion of our COM
mon humanity and are entitled to the
protection of the law,
This motion was argued the first
week in January; q decision was prom
ised in March; the midsummer term is
passing away and the Court is still
mute.