Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1894-04-06
THE PROFESSIONAL CLUB.
"JurisdictiOn of the Federal Courts"

-
Read Before the Club, Monday Even-
ing, April =.
Judge Shea having been obliged to can
eel his engagement to give an historical pa
per, relative to the attack on Fort Sumter,
before the Professional club at its March
meeting, Hon. j. L. Martin courteously
complied with the request of the executive
committee that he should fill the gap by
reading, Monday evening, his paper on
"The jurisdiction of the Federal courts"
This paper was originally prepared and
read before a similar club at Mortified
which had been having a course on consti-
tutional law. 1t was a compact and com
prehensive statement and explanation of
the questions and cases over which the
Federal courts have iurisd ction, with a de-
scription of the scope of each branch of
these courts, and especially of the changes
wrought by the recent establishment of the
circuit court of appeals
Points from the Paper.
The fountain of the Federal court is the
constitution of the United States, which
provides in article three that the judicial
power of the United States shall be vested
| i'm one supreme court and in such inferior
| courts as Congress may ordain and estab-
! lish. Our Federal judiciary system was
| the result of compromise between the
! extreme state rights advocates and those
| who favored centralizing all power i'm the
! general government. Originally, and un-
! til 1891, the inferior courts consisted only
of district and circuit courts, each state
| having at least one district, and the coun-
! try as a whole being divided, in later years,
| into nine circuits. Vermont is in the sec
| ond circuit, which includes also Connect
cut and New York. Formerly the circuit
court had appellate and revisory jurisdiction
over the DEGREES of the district court, but
| the law of March, 1891, establishing the
! United States circuit court of appeals, has
| largely wiped out the distinction between
the circuit and district courts.
Cases in which the Federal Courts have
Jurisdiction.
Under the laws of Congress the Federal
courts have jurisdiction in all suits of a
! civil nature, at common law or in equity,
where the matter in dispute exceeds in
value $1,000, and where an alien is a party
to the suit, or where the suit is between
citizens of different states;
OF all suits in equity where the matter
in dispute exceeds 500 and the general
! government is petitioner;
OF all suits where the United States or
an officer brings suit under any act of Con
gress;
OF all suits under the postal or internal
revenue laws;
OF all suits with regard to the carriage
of passengers in merchant vessels:
nf all Suits updpr the patput and cory
right laws;
OF all suits by or against banking asso-
Citations established under the national
banking law;
OF suits to recover damages to person or
property on account of any act done by
the person while engaged in the collection
of United States revenue, or in enforcing
the rights of citizens to vote in the several
states:
OF all suits arising under section 20l0 of
the revised statutes of the United States
which relates to the deprivation of any
person of any office because of fraud or
otherwise;
of all suits based upon the civil rights
bill;
OF all suits to punish owners or officers
of vessels through whose fault the life of
any person is lost;
vi all CTlllltS Vi OltuCtS tO1lllLdulc VII
der the authority of the United States that
come within the jurisdiction of the Fed
eral coulss.
The Federal court has no jurisdiction of
offences or crimes known as common law
offences; but over offences committed on
any United States vessel on the high seas
that is, a marine league from shore it
has exclusive jurisdiction. The deck of a
ship is regarded as the real estate of the
country to which it belongs whenever a
marine league from shore, or in any foreign
port. If within the marine league, as ly-
ing in harbOr, ii is counted as the real es-
tate of the state to which the harbOr is adj
iacent, and any offence committed on the
vessel in such case is punishable in the
state court. A resident alien may sue a
citizen in the Federal courts; so, also, q
citizen may sue an alien in the same court
State and Federal courts cannot lawfully
interfere with each other SO careful il
the training of these courts, so great is the
respect which their members entertain fol
each other that no friction or antagonist
arises between them.
q The Circuit Court of Appeals.
ON the Sd of March, 1891, Congress.
created the court known by this name
The necessity for it arose from the grea
| amount of work which Overburdened tht
0 supreme court, making that court from
, four to five years in arrears with its cases
1 This act created in each of the nine cir
5 cults circuit court of appeals, and pro
vided for the appointment of an additions
= Judge for each circuit. The chief justic
v and his associates of the United States su
preme court, one Of whom is assigned t,
each circuit, and the circuit and distric
Judges within each circuit, are competen
TO sit in this court; in practice neither tn
chief justice nor his associates sit in tn
u court. This circuit court of appeals is nov
Il the last resort except in such cases as ar
: here named: The right of appeal to tn
e supreme court in any case where the juris
7 distion of the court is in issue; from de
i crees in prize cases; from conviction for
capital or otherwise infamous crime; il
: cases involving the construction of tn
y constitution of the United States; in case
?. in which the cOnstitutionality of a law o