Leeper v. State of Texas

• Decision Date: 30 March 1891
• Parties: LEEPER et al. v. STATE OF TEXAS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

139 U.S. 462

11 S.Ct. 577

35 L.Ed. 225

LEEPER et al. v. STATE OF TEXAS.

March 30, 1891.

[Statement of Case from pages 463-467 intentionally omitted] Wm. S. Flippin and G. P. M. Turner, for plaintiffs in error.

R. H. Harrison, Asst. Atty. Gen. Tex., for the State.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

It must be regarded as settled that a petition for a writ of error forms no part of the record upon which action here is taken. Manning v. French, 133 U. S. 186, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 258; Clark v. Pennsylvania, 128 U. S. 395, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 2, 113; Warfield v. Chaffee, 91 U. S. 690; Butler v. Gage, 138 U. S. 52, ante, 235. That to give this court jurisdiction to review the judgment of a state court under section 709 of the Revised Statutes, because of the denial by the state court of any right, title, privilege, or immunity claimed under the constitution, or any treaty or statute of the United States, it must appear on the record that such title, right, privilege, or immunity was specially set up or claimed at the proper time and in the proper way. Spies v. Illinois, 123 U. S. 131, 181, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 21; Baldwin v. Kansas, 129 U. S. 52, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 193; Chappell v. Bradshaw, 128 U. S. 132, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 40. That whether the statutes of a legislature of a state have been duly enacted in accordance with the requirements of the constitution of such state is not a federal question, and the decision of state courts as to what are the laws of the state is binding upon the courts of the United States. Town of South Ottawa v. Perkins, 94 U. S. 260, 268; Post v. Supervisors, 105 U. S. 667; Norton v. Shelby Co., 118 U. S. 425, 440, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1121; Railroad Co. v. Georgia, 98 U. S. 359, 366; Baldwin v. Kansas, 129 U. S. 52, 57, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 193. That by the fourteenth amendment the powers of states in dealing with crime within their borders are not limited, except that no state can deprive particular persons, or classes of persons, of equal and impartial justice under the law. That law in its regular course of administration through courts of justice is due process, and when secured by the law of the state the constitutional requirement is satisfied; and that due process is so secured by lawsope rating on all alike, and not subjecting the individual to the arbitrary exercise of the powers of government unrestrained by the established principles of private right and distributive justice. Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 535, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 111, and cases cited. In view of these repeatedly adjudicated propositions, we do not care to discuss at length the points urged by plaintiff in error. Our jurisdiction in this class of cases is properly invoked by writ of error, not by appeal. The validity of...