In re Higdon
| Decision Date | 01 November 1920 |
| Docket Number | 5485. |
| Citation | 269 F. 150 |
| Parties | In re HIGDON et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri |
John C Higdon, of St. Louis, Mo., and G. H. Foree, for petitioners.
John C Higdon, Esq., and G. H. Foree, Esq., candidates on the Democratic ticket for nomination to the positions of United States Senator from Missouri and Representative in Congress from the Tenth congressional district of that state respectively, at the primary election August 3, 1920, applied to the judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri for a writ of mandamus commanding the board of election commissioners in the city of St. Louis, Mo., to reopen the ballot boxes, recount the ballots, and make a true and lawful return thereof to the court. Various frauds and irregularities were alleged. The application was denied by Hon. Charles B. Faris, United States District Judge, for want of jurisdiction. A petition for rehearing was presented to William C. Hook, United States Circuit Judge, at the instance of the petitioners and with the consent of the District Judge.
Two grounds for the existence of jurisdiction are asserted First, the provision of the Constitution which extends the judicial power 'to all cases in law and equity' arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States (article 3, Sec. 2); second, the federal Corrupt Practices Acts (37 Stat. 29 (Comp. St. Sec. 192 et seq.); 40 Stats. 1013 (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, Sec. 10251a)), relating to primary, general, and special elections.
The relation of the Supreme Court to the judicial power of the United States need not be considered. As to the inferior federal courts, the provision of the Constitution is not self-executing or automatically operative. It was left to Congress to distribute the judicial power among them and to prescribe the extent and the means of its exercise.
The original Judiciary Act of 1789 (1 Stat. 78) conferred upon the Circuit Courts original cognizance of all suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity, where the matter in dispute exceeded a specified value; but it was held more than a century ago that this did not cover the whole ground of the Constitution, and that those courts had no jurisdiction of mandamus as an original plenary action. McIntire v. Wood 7 Cranch, 504, 3 L.Ed. 420. In federal jurisprudence mandamus is not available to establish or complete an individual right, even though the right may arise under the Constitution and laws of the United States. It is regarded as auxiliary or assistant to a jurisdiction already existing; not a jurisdiction in the general sense, but one that is...
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