David Lamar v. United States

Decision Date31 January 1916
Docket NumberNo. 434,434
PartiesDAVID LAMAR, Plff. in Err., v. UNITED STATES
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Solicitor General Davis for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 61 intentionally omitted] Messrs. Carl E. Whitney and A. Leo Everett for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 62-63 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff in error was tried and convicted upon an indictment charging him with having falsely pretended to be an officer of the government of the United States, to wit, a member of the House of Representatives, that is to say, A. Mitchell Palmer, a member of Congress, with intent to defraud J. P. Morgan & Company and the United States Steel Corporation. The case is brought here directly on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction because the indictment does not charge a crime against the United States, and that the interpretation of the Constitution was involved in the decision that a Congressman is an officer of the United States. There are subsidiary objections stated as constitutional that the indictment is insufficient, and that it does not appear in what district the crime was committed.

On the matter of jurisdiction it is said that when the controversy concerns a subject limited by Federal law, such as bankruptcy (Frederic L. Grant Shoe Co. v. W. M. Laird Co. 212 U. S. 445, 53 L. ed. 591, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 332), copyright (Globe Newspaper Co. v. Walker, 210 U. S. 356, 52 L. ed. 1096, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 726), patents (Healy v. Sea Gull Specialty Co. 237 U. S. 479, 59 L. ed. 1056, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 658), or admiralty (The Jefferson, 215 U. S. 130, 54 L. ed. 125, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 54, 17 Ann. Cas. 907), the jurisdiction so far coalesces with the merits that a case not within the law is not within the jurisdiction of the court (The Ira M. Hedges [Lehigh Valley R. Co. v. Cornell S. B. Co.] 218 U. S. 264, 270, 54 L. ed. 1039, 1040, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 17, 20 Ann. Cas. 1235; Haddock v. Haddock, 201 U. S. 562, 50 L. ed. 867, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 525, 5 Ann. Cas. 1). Jurisdiction is a matter of power, and covers wrong as well as right decisions. Fauntleroy v. Lum, 210 U. S. 230, 234, 235, 52 L. ed. 1039, 1041, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 641; Burnet v. Desmornes y Alvarez, 226 U. S. 145, 147, 57 L. ed. 159, 160, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 63. There may be instances in which it is hard to say whether a law goes to the power or only to the duty of the court; but the argument is pressed too far. A decision that a patent is bad, either on the facts or on the law, is as binding as one that it is good. The Fair v. Kohler Die & Specialty Co. 228 U. S. 22, 25, 57 L. ed. 716, 717, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 410. And nothing can be clearer than that the district court, which has jurisdiction of all crimes cognizable under the authority of the United States (Judicial Code of March 3, 1911, chap. 231, § 24, second [36 Stat. at L. 1091, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 991 (2)]), acts equally within its jurisdiction whether it decides a man to be guilty or innocent under the criminal law, and whether its decision is right or wrong. The objection that the indictment does not charge a crime against the United States goes only to the...

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