page_title: Tarble's Case
section_title: Opinion of the Court
hierarchical_section_title: Tarble's Case / Opinion of the Court
context_page_description: Tarble's Case, 80 U.S. 397, was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that a State judge has no jurisdiction to issue a writ of habeas corpus, or to continue proceedings under the writ when issued, for the discharge of a person held by the authority, or claim and color of the authority, of the United States by an officer of that government.
context_section_description: Justice Stephen Field delivered the opinion of the Court. Field stated that both Ableman v. Booth and United States v. Booth had answered the question of jurisdiction. The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land, "anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." A state court does not have the jurisdiction "to interfere with the authority of the United States, whether that authority be exercised by a Federal officer or be exercised by a Federal tribunal." A state court may have jurisdiction under state law to issue the writ unless it appears on its face to be directed at an officer of the federal government. The state judge was without jurisdiction to issue the writ and the judgment was reversed.
  Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase dissented from the majority opinion. Chase believed that a state court had the authority to issue the writ of habeas corpus, and that to deny that authority denied the rights of citizens to be protected from arbitrary imprisonment.
caption: Justice Field, author of the majority opinion
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