The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-22
It IS IN FAVOR Of BECKHAM|
The Decision of the United States Supreme
Court Handed Down.
IT IS WRITTEN BY CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER

that while they concurred in the result
they was not prepared to say that pun
lie office was not property.
HARLAN'S DISSENTING OPINION.
Justice Harlan in his dissenting opinion
quotes various authorizes, and says that
notwithstanding them the decision today
is that this court has no jurisdiction to
inouire if the citizen has been deprived.
without due process of law, OF an office
held by him under the Constitution and
laws Of his State. If the contest between
the one holding the office and the person
seeking to hold it is determina0e by The
Legislature in a prescribed mode, this
court, it appears, cannot inquire whether
that mode was pursued and cannot IN
terfere for the protection of he incunl-
bent, even if the final action OF the Leg
slature was confessedly capricious and ar
bitrary, inconsistent with the "ecogl1ed
principles that belong to due process If
law, and not based in any degree on the
evidence taken in the contest. II he
Kentucky Legislature had wholly diSre-
garded the mode prescribed by the statu-
tes of that State, and without appointing
a board of contest composed of its own
members, had by joint resolution Sit1p'y
declared Goebel to be Governor and espe-
cially if such action had been held by cEe
highest court Of the State TO be conr!G-
sive. this court, as we are informed by
the decision just rendered would he with
out jurisdiction to protect the incunb5nt
for the reason as is now adjudged, that
the office in dispute is not property with
in the meaning Of the Fourteenth Amend
ment.
when the Fourteenth Amendment for
bade any State from depriving any per-
son of life, liberty or property without
due process of law, | had supposed chat
the purpose was to guard citizens against
being deprived OF any legal right in VIOLA
ton of the fundamental guarantees that
inhere in due process of law
But it seems that under our system of
Government the right Of a citizen 20 ~
ercise a State office TO which he has been
lawfully elected by the people may 50 far
as the Constitution OF the United States
is concerned, be taken from him by the
arbitrary action of State the Legislature
in utter disregard of the principle that
Anglo Saxon freemen have for centuries
deemed to be essential to the require
ment of due process of law. / cannot as
sent to this Interpretation of the Four
teenth Amendment
He quoted from Wilson VS.. North Caro-
lima, a contest about a local office, in
support of his view, and said: 1T IS to
be regretted that a case like this should
be the occasion of a departure from prin-
ciples heretofore announced and acted
upon by this court Looking into the
record cf this case, l find such action TO
have been taken as was discreditable to
the body claiming to be the Legislature
of Kentucky, and which assumed to be
nothing in accordance with law. 1t open
ly and defiantly trampled upon the will
Of the people expressed at the ballot box
1t struck at the very foundation of liberty
regulated by law"
He says the Kentucky Legislatures ac-
ton was purely arbitrary, because made
without looking at all into the evidence.
THAT action, he continued, Ought not to
be respected in any court as a judgment
upon the question involving ID Aportant
rights submitted to it for decision, but
as action taken wholly outside of all law,
and in contempt of the constitutional
rights of freemen to select their rulers.
The record justifies the belief that there
was a fixed purpose on it's part to put
Goebel into office and GUST Taylor, regard
less Of the proof in the case. If any re-
gard whatever had been paid to the evil
dence, no conclusion favorable to Goebel
could have been reached on any ground
upon which the Board of Contest or the
body calling itself the Legislature had
jurisdiction to determine the contest. In
my opinion the judgment should be re-
versed."
An INTERVIEW WITH BECKHAM.
Frankfort, Ky. May Ex-Governor
Beckham gave out a long interview to-
night expressing qualification at the
triumph of law and order over lawiess-
ness and desperation" His highest am
bition as Governor he says, will be 10
restore law and order in the State.