Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/139/449/
Timestamp: 2014-07-26 13:32:00
Document Index: 371776016

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 12', 'art. 4872', 'art. 5092', '§ 4012', 'art. 4872', '§ 2722']

DUNCAN v. MCCALL, Sheriff. | LII / Legal Information Institute
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139 U.S. 449 (11 S.Ct. 573, 35 L.Ed. 219)
[HTML] Statement of Case from pages 449-453 intentionally omitted
The distinction is recognized between matters of which the court will take judicial cognizance 'immediately, suo motu,' and those which it will not notice 'until its attention has been formally called to them.' Gres. Eq. Ev. 292, 306. As to the last, Mr. Gresley says: 'It will not point out their applicability nor call for them, but if they are once put in by either party it will investigate them, and will bring its own judicial knowledge to supply or assist their proof, and will then adopt them as its own evidence, independently of the parties.' Jones v. U. S., 137 U. S. 202, 216, ante, 80. As a statute duly certified is presumed to have been duly passed until the contrary appears, (a presumption arising in favor of the law as printed by authority, and, in a higher degree, of the original on file in the proper repository,) it would seem to follow that wherever a suit comes to issue, whether in the court below or the higher tribunal, an objection resting upon the failure of the legislature to comply with the provisions of the constitution should be so presented that the adverse party may have opportunity to controvert the allegations, and to prove by the record due conformity with the constitutional requirements. People v. Supervisors, 8 N. Y. 325. By the constitution of Texas, each house of the legislature must keep a journal of its proceedings, and publish the same, and the yeas and nays of either house on any question shall, at the desire of three members present, be entered on the journals, (article 3, § 12;) no law shall be passed except by bill, and no bill shall have the force of law until it has been read on three succcessive days in each house, and free discussion allowed thereon, but in case of imperative public necessity (which necessity shall be stated in a preamble or the body of the bill) four-fifths of the house in which the bill may be pending may suspend this rule, the years and nays ein g taken on the question of suspension, and entered upon the journal, (sections 30, 32;) no bill shall be considered unless it has first been referred to a committee and reported thereon; and no bill shall be passed which has not been presented, referred, and reported at least three days before final adjournment, (section 37;) the presiding officer of each house shall, in the presence of the house over which he presides, sign all bills, and the fact of signing shall be entered on the journals, (section 38;) no law passed by the legislature, except the general appropriation act, shall take effect or go into force until 90 days after the adjournment of the session at which it was enacted, unless in case of an emergency the legislature by a vote of two-thirds otherwise direct, said vote to be taken by yeas and nays and entered upon the journals, and the emergency to be expressed in a preamble or the body of the act, (section 39.) By the law prior to 1876, the journals of the respective houses were required to be furnished to the public printer for the purpose of being printed by the clerical officers of each house, (Pasch. Dig. art. 4872;) and the secretary of state was required to distribute the printed journals, (Id. art. 5092;) and similar provision was made by the act of June 27, 1876, (Laws Tex. 1876, p. 36,) as also by the Revised Statutes of 1879, (Rev. St. p. 577, § 4012 et seq.) When printed, the manuscript journals were to be returned and filed in the archives of the legislature. Pasch. Dig. art. 4872; Laws Tex. 1876, p. 36. It was the duty of the secretary of state to keep, publish, and distribute the laws, (Pasch. Dig. arts. 5091, 5092, 4872, et seq.; Laws Tex. 1876, pp. 35, 313; Rev. St. 1879, pp. 395, 577, § 2722 et seq.) The Revised Statutes of Texas containing the Code in question were officially published in 1879, with the certificate of the secretary of state as to the date when the law enacting them went into effect, and that the volume was a true and correct copy of the original bills on file in his department. For 11 years prior to the conviction of Duncan, these Codes had been recognized and observed by the people of Texas; had been amended by the legislature, and republished under its authority; and their provisions had been repeatedly construed and enforced by the courts as the law of the land. In Usener v. State, 8 Tex. App. 177, the validity of the Penal Code in respect of its adoption by the legislature was passed upon and the law upheld; and that case was quoted with approval in Ex parte Tipton, 28 Tex. App. 438, 13 S. W. Rep. 610, a decision rendered as late as February, 1890. This decision ruled that an authenticated statute should be regarded as the best evidence that the required formalities were observed in its passage, and that the courts would not exercise the power of going behind it and inquiring into the manner of its enactment; and Blessing v. Galveston, 42 Tex. 641; Railway Co. v. Hearne, 32 Tex. 547; and Day Land, etc., Co. v. State, 68 Tex. 526, 4 S. W. Rep. 865,were cited in support of the proposition. In one of these cases it was decided that the judicial department should not disregard and treat as a nullity an act of the legislature, because the journals of one or both houses failed to show the passage of the bill in strict conformity with all the directions contained in the constitution; and in another, that it would be conclusively presumed that a bill had been referred to a committee, and reported on before its passage, as required by the constitution. The language of the court in State v. Swift, 10 Nev. 176, was quoted approvingly in Usener v. State, and repeated in Ex parte Tipton: 'Where an act has been passed by the legislature, signed by the proper officers of each house, approved by the governor, and filed in the office of the secretary of state, it constitutes a record which is conclusive evidence of the passage of the act as enrolled. Neither the journals kept by the legislature, nor the bill as originally introduced,nor the amendments attached to it, nor parol evidence, can be received in order to show that an act of the legislature, properly enrolled, authenticated, and deposited with the secretary of state, did not become a law. This court, for the purpose of informing itself of the existence or terms of a law, cannot look beyond the enrolled act, certified to by those officers who are charged by the constitution with the duty of certifying and with the duty of deciding what laws have been enacted.' In Usener's Case, the court declared that although not feeling in duty bound to do so, yet it had nevertheless examined the journals of the two houses, with regard to the bill entitled 'An act to adopt and establish a Penal Code and a Code of Criminal Procedure for the state of Texas,' and arrived at the conclusion that the act had received the ligislative sanction in strict conformity with the constitution, so that, if driven to such examination, the court was unhesitatingly of opinion that there would be no difficulty in the way of establishing that fact by them in every essential particular. It is insisted that the extent of the disregard of constitutional requirements was not fully developed in that case, and that its authority was overthrown by Hunt v. State, 22 Tex. App. 396, 3 S. W. Rep. 233. But we are not called on to conclude how this may be or to anticipate the ultimate judgment of the courts of Texas, if they consider the controversy still an open one. If the question of the in validity of the Codes was presented to the district court of Maverick county, it must be assumed that it adjudged in favor of their validity; and, as the case has been carried to the court of appeals, that it will there be adjudicated in accordance with the law of the state, and when so determined it is entirely clear that that adjudication could not be reviewed by the circuit court or by us, on habeas corpus. And the result must be the same if the question has not been raised by the petitioner in the state courts.