[Download] "Territory v. Lockwood" by United States Supreme Court " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Territory v. Lockwood
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1865
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 54 KB
Description
Mr. Woolworth for the Territory and relator, plaintiff in error: The language of the Code, 'any public office,' plainly embraces the office of a Territorial judge. Not only does such an officer hold an office 'within the Territory,' but the whole of the judicial power of the Territory is vested in him and his associates. He is an officer of the Territory. His duties are all performed within it and concerns its people. The expression of the organic act that 'the judicial power of the Territory' shall be vested, &c., indicates that the powers belong to the Territory in its very nature; that is to say, that they are inherent in it as a political entity. The Territory is made the sole governing power within its limits, so far as its domestic affairs are concerned. All laws, we know, are enacted, and all judicial proceedings conducted in its name. The usurper of one of its offices is an offender against its dignity. The people of it suffer by the act of usurpation. It is unimportant how either the relator or the defendant claims; whether by appointment of the president, the governor, or by election from the people. Each, in either or any case, is equally within the spirit of the Code and organic act. Territorial courts are not constitutional courts in which the judicial powers conferred by the Constitution on the General Government can be deposited. They are legislative courts, created in virtue of the general right of sovereignty which exists in the government, or in virtue of that clause which enables Congress to make laws regulating the territories belonging to the United States. The jurisdiction with which they are invested is not a part of that judicial power which is defined in the third article of the Constitution, but is conferred by Congress in the exercise of its powers over the Territories of the United States.2