Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-07-21
BY JOHN T. FREY

if1al by jury does not exist in
equity court proceedings
he great difference between the
court Of Star Chamber aud the Law
courts 81 England was the fact that
no jury listened u evidence and de-
tefmined the facts in Star Charaher
proceedings.
The notorious Star Chamber was
vested with a large measure OF the
jurisdiction and discretion which i
At present exercised BY American
equity courts.
The preamble to the act Of Pariia-
ment creating the Court of Star
Chamber contained the expression
that IL was established.
TO secure the certain and speedy
punishment Of all persons who, in the
opinion Of the court, deserved punish
ment."
All Of the judges who sat in the
Star Chamber were not corrupt. I'M
informed or violently preiudieed men.
many were selected from the most
honest, able, learned and conscientious
among the judges, but the high cour~
age and character of n few did not
save the court from becoming an in
strument of gross injustice. and his
tory has recorded the sinister part
played by this court.
IL became so sindletiye, cruel.
pitiless, and gathered SO much power
to itself that ii would have put an
end to the liberties Of the British
people II they had not abolished it,
As one distinguished publicist said:
Had there been no Star Chamber,
there would have been no rebellion
against Charles fst.'
From the earliest Saxon days Eng
lishmen have based the protection of
their liberties upon the jury system.
Over 200 years ago, British jur-
list said:
by the laws of King Ethelred ii is
apparent that juries were in use many
years before the conquest; and they
are, as it We're, Incorporated in our
constitution being the most valuable
part of it."
More recently Lord Commissioner
Maynard, referring to the subject.
declared:
Trial by jury is the subjects
birthrlght, an inheritance as his lands
are, and without which he is not sure
to keep them or anything else. This
way of trial is his fence and protec-
ton against all frauds and surprises
and against all storms of power
Equally impressive was Lord Cam
denis statement that:
Trial by jury is indeed the foun-
dation of our free constitution; take
that away and the whole fabric will
soon molder into dust"
Lord Erskine in his magnificent dis
cussion of the jury system said in
part:
Zone of the most valuable branches
of our laws is that which relates to
juries whose antiquity Is beyond the
reach of record or history; they have
the same area with our constitution,
which cannot survive them; our lib
erty must expire with them as the
animal body with its most vital parts.
Our ancestors were too prudent to
trust such great concerns liberty or
propertyt in the hands of any. officers
appointed by the Crown, or Of any
certain number of men during life,
lest they should be influenced or awed
by great men, or corrupted by brides,
flattery or love of power"
We inherited the jury system from
the mother country. The sixth
amendment to our Constitution pro-
vides in part, that;
In all criminal prosecution the
accused shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial by an impair
tial jury of the state and district
wherein the crime shall have been
committed"
One of the immediate results of in
functions in connection with industrial
disputes was to transform courts of
equity into the equivalent of Star
Chamber proceedings, because work
men charged with contempt were de-
MED trail by jury and in addition
were compelled to prove their inno-
cence, instead of the burden of proof
resting with the court as it does in all
criminal cases
American equity courts without
sanctioned authority of the constitu-
ton, Congress, or state legislatures
and in complete violation of British
presidents, extended their jurisdic-
ton to criminal cases by restraining
the commission of illegal acts, and
then trying those accused not for the
alleged act, but upon a charge OF
contempt, this procedure denying the
accused of all the rights guaranteed
by the constitution, as well as the
common and statutory law.
An example of this procedure by
an equity court is found in an in
junction issued by the United States
Circuit Court, Eastern District of
Wisconsin in June, 1906, the striking
workmen being enjoined
"and the said individual defendants
above named are, and each of them
is, ordered, commanded and enjoined
to desist from assaulting or commit
ting personal violence upon any of
the persons in the employ of, or seek
ing employment with said complain
ant"
Another prominent feature Of many
injunctions has been the indefinite
character of the language used.
Federal Judge j. V. Quarles in is
suing an injunction against striking
molders restrained them from
"Impeding, hindering, obstructing,
or interfering with any of the busi-
ness of the complainant, in the opera
ton of any of its works
From compelling, or attempting to
compel or induce, by threats or in
limitation of any sort, or fraud, or
n