Court Opinion

ID: 9808872
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:53:06.102739+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:19:50.989594
License: Public Domain

Hodman, J.
Dissenting. I am unable to concur in the •opinion of my Associates, and it is respectful to them to state my reasons.
The question has been learnedly andjably discussed at the ¡bar here and elsewhere, and probably every argument has been exhausted which can properly bear upon it.
We have been informed also, that it] is the intention of the parties, whatever our decision may be,] to obtain the decision of the Court having final j urisdiction of all questions arising out of the Constitution of the United States. We hope that course will be taken. The importance of the •question requires it. All the reasons that exist on either side will be presented to that Court, and whatever its decision may be, it will be acquiesced in and cheerfully followed by this Court, and I have no doubt by every department of the government, as well as by the people of North Carolina.
For these reasons, I shall be as brief as ¿possible, stating ■merely the principles upon which I think the case ought tó be decided, without uselessly consuming spa<?e, by attempting to support them by a full exposition of the argument, or *550by a citation of authorities. Eor those I refer to the discussions I have alluded to.
No doubt the Act of Congress of 1866, intended to embrace criminal prosecutions for- offences against the State, such as that for which the present defendant is indicted. If the Act is constitutional, they must be removed to the Circuit Court, whatever may be done with them there. That Congress has not provided for the trial of s«h eases after their removal, is not an argument that it did mot intend a removal, which can weigh against the plain language of the Act. It would prove that the Act was defective. But this-would not justify a State Court in refusing to obey it.
The only question is, had Congress the constitutional-power to pass the Act ? I think it had not.
It is conceded, I think, and I will assume it, that the Circuit Courts of the United States have no original jurisdiction of an indictment for a crime which is such merely by the common law, and has never been made a crime by any Act of Congress. The indictment in this case, which is for an assault and batteiy by one citizen of North Carolina upon another citizen of the State within a County of the State, could not have been found in the Circuit Court.
A jurisdiction acquired by the removal of an action from a State Court, I think, is original jurisdiction, according to the legal as ■well as the ordinary meaning of the term.
Before there can be an appeal, some decision of fact, ox-law, or of both, must have been made, which it is the object of the appeal to reverse. In the present case there, has been no decision, (except an interlocutory one) and there can be no appeal’ except in some new and forced sense of the word.
It is an established rule that technical terms must be interpreted in the sense which they bear by the usage of the profession. If we abandon this rule, then we may give them .any meaning that we please, and for any reason, or by -caprice.
*551When Judge Makshall classed the jurisdiction acquired by removal, as appellate, he did so merely arguendo.' The classification formed no part of the decision, and its accuracy in this respect, was not necessary to ’Support it. Whatever so great a Judge says, even if it be without much consideration, deserves respect; but it is not authority, in the proper sense of that term, to which the Courts must submit their reason.
The 'United States and the several States may be regarded as in some respects, foreign to, and independent of each other. Each has its sphere of action in which it is sovereign. The Constitution, in giving powers to the Federal Courts, gave or authorized Congress to give to them all such jurisdiction as was necessary to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the United States in all cases within the sphere of its duties, but it left to the State Courts the jurisdiction to administer the domestic laws of the State among its own citizens. Of a crime against the U nited States, the Federal Courts alone have jurisdiction. Of a crime against the State, the Courts of the State alone have original jurisdiction, and"1 if in the course of the trial, some, federal element appears, the ease may be decided on appeal by the Supreme Court of the United States, in order that the sovereignty of the United States may lie guarded, and an. uniform construction given to its laws. It would break in upon this harmonious arrangement of powers, whereby n© clashing can ever occur, if it were held that the State Courts could not try breaches of the peace within the borders of the State between its own citizens whenever the party accused was an officer in the revenue service of the United States and claimed that the act had been done in the discharge of his official duty. If such be the law, the States have lost the last remnant of sovereignty. They cannot preserve order within their territories. A class is created that defies their laws, is independent of their jurisdiction,'and-*552relies for immunity upon a government which has no- duty, and no interest to preserve the peace of the State, and in my opinion, no power under the Constitution to do so through the original jurisdiction of its Courts, or except in cases of which this is confessedly not one.
The Circuit Courts can have no jurisdiction in a case which they cannot determine. They cannot try the accused in this case because he is not charged with any offence against the Government whose laws only they administer. They cannot punish if they should convict him, because Congress has prescribed no punishment, and the Court can inflict none at common law. Nor can any Act of -Congress remedy these defects of power. If Congress could, and should, make every crime at common law a crime against the United States, still they would remain crimes against the States which the State Courts could try and punish.. The States must have jurisdiction to try offences against their laws, or they cease to be States. It is a power necessarily inherent in a State. It alone makes a State.
It is said that the Federal Courts must have the sole power of trying its revenue officers for assaults and other offences committed by them by color of their office and of determining their criminality, as otherwise, it could not collect, its internal revenue. The jurisdiction of the Federal Courts in such cases is thus argued to be a necessary and proper incident to the power to collect taxes. If it were true tiiat the United States could not collect internal taxes without this jurisdiction in the Federal Courts, it wrould follow that Congress could constitutionally give it, for the powetf of Congress to lay and collect taxes is undoubted. These apprehensions spring from an excessive sensibility. I believe they .-are groundless. I think that the United States with its unlimited irregular army of revenue collectors, detectives and marshals, with .all their assistants and deputies backed i'n case of need by the regular army, can collect its taxes, and *553still leave to the State Courts, the jurisdiction to try due of these officers for a crime against a State committed within the borders of the State, and -which is a crime against no other sovereignty but that of the State. The State of North Carolina collects its revenues, which are all from direct taxation by ninety-four Sheriffs, without violence, without oppression, and without complaint. • -
■ If the officer acted in what he did within the scope of his duty, it would be a defence in the State Court; and’ if it be possible that juries might from prejudice sometimes fail to give due weight to the evidence in his behalf, the Judges of the State, whom we must assume to be equal in integrity, and impartiality to the Federal Judges, may certainly b® trusted to set aside all convictions against the weight of e.vi~ denee; and if we may suppose it possible, that any Judge should so fail in his duty from prej udice or partiality, this Court -would probably have the power, and certainly the inclination, to give relief. 11 Bush, (Ky.)495. If the highest State Court when the case is brought before it shall err ip any matter of law, it is admitted that the error could be corrected on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States.
On the other hand, if the power of withdrawing an indictment against a revenue officer from the State Courts shall be sustained, immunity will practically be secured for all these officers, for all offences. Conceding as I do, that the Judges and officers of the Circuit Court may be expected to discharge their duties with fidelity, yet when an offence committed in a distant part of the State, is removed for trial to Raleigh or Greensboro, in the great majority of cases the prosecutor and the witnesses will be unable to attend, and a verdict of acquittal will be the necessary result. The injured persons would brood over their supposed or real injuries, and a spirit of dissatisfaction with the government would grow up by no means conducive to the public good. *554The insurrection of Wat Tyler was caused by the crime , of an internal revenue officer committed under color of his office. To deprive the State Courts of the power of punishing such offences, would result in breeding a band of marauders under color of law, forming a class with peculiar and odious privileges whose existence would be as incompatible with the honor and welfare of the United States, as with the dignity of the States, and their power to preserve peace and order within their limits. These considerations far outweigh any increased facilities in the collection of taxes, which might be gained by depriving the States of this jurisdiction.
.Fortunately this question is of an interest and importance not confined to any section. Taxes are collected in all the States, and it may be supposed that the manners and methods of proceeding of the inferior officers of internal revenue are of the same polite and agreeable character all over the world. The same questions must arise, sooner or later, in every State, and every State ha's the same interest in the decision of this ease that North Carolina has. In my opinion the order of the Superior Court for the removal of this action to the Circuit Court of the United States should be reversed, and the Superior Court .directed to try the prisoner.
Judgment affirmed. PER. CURIAM.