State of Minnesota v. Brundage

• Decision Date: 18 March 1901
• Docket Number: No. 159,159
• Citation: 45 L.Ed. 639,21 S.Ct. 455,180 U.S. 499
• Parties: STATE OF MINNESOTA, Appt. , v. C. N. BRUNDAGE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

180 U.S. 499

21 S.Ct. 455

45 L.Ed. 639

STATE OF MINNESOTA, Appt.,

v C. N. BRUNDAGE.

No. 159.

Argued February 28, 1901.

Decided March 18, 1901.

Mr. Jackson H. Ralston for defendants in error.

Mr. W. B. Douglas, Attorney General of Minnesota, for appellant.

Messrs. Wm. D. Guthrie and Albert H. Veeder for appellee.

Mr. Justice Harlan delivered the opinion of the court:

The appellee Brundage was arrested under a warrant issued by the municipal court of Minneapolis, Minnesota, upon the complaint under oath of the inspector of the State Dairy & Food Department of that state charging him with having violated a statute of Minnesota approved April 19th, 1891, entitled 'An Act to Prevent Fraud in the Sale of Dairy Products, Their Imitations or Substitutes, and to Prohibit and Prevent the Manufacture or Sale of Unhealthy or Adulterated Dairy Products, and to Preserve the Public Health.' Minn. Gen. Laws 1899, chap. 295.

The specific offense charged was that the accused, in the county of Hennepin, Minnesota, 'did wilfully, unlawfully, and wrongfully offer and expose for sale, and have in his possession with intent to sell, a quantity of a certain compound designed to take the place of butter, and made in part from animal and vegetable oils and fats not produced from milk or cream, said compound being an article commonly known as oleomargarine, and being then and there colored with a coloring matter whereby the said article and compound was made to resemble butter, contrary to the statutes in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Minnesota.'

He was adjudged to be guilty and to pay a fine of $25 and costs, or in default thereof to be committed to the workhouse to undergo hard labor for thirty days, unless he sooner paid the fine and costs or was thence discharged by due course of law.

Having been taken into custody in execution of the judgment, Brundage presented his application to the circuit court of the United States for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was restrained of his liberty in violation of the Constitution of the United States. That court held the statute to be unconstitutional, and discharged the accused from the custody of the state authorities.

The state insists, upon this appeal, that the statute, at least in the particulars applicable to this case, was consistent with the Constitution of the United States.

This question is one of great importance, but we do not deem it necessary now to consider it; for in our opinion the circuit court should have denied the application for the writ of habeas corpus, without prejudice to a renewal of the same after the accused had availed himself of such remedies as the laws of the state afforded for a review of the judgment in the state court of which he complains.

We have held, upon full consideration, that although under existing statutes a circuit court of the United States has jurisdiction upon habeas corpus to discharge from the custody of state officers or tribunals one restrained of his liberty in violation of the Constitution of the United States, it is not required in every case to exercise its power to that end immediately upon application being made for the writ. 'We cannot suppose,' this court has said, 'that Congress intended to compel those courts, by such means, to draw to themselves, in the first instance, the control of all criminal prosecutions commenced in state courts exercising authority within the same territorial limits, where the accused claims that he is held in custody in violation of the Constitution of the United States. The injunction to hear the case summarily, and thereupon 'to dispose of the party as law and justice require' [R. S. § 761], does not deprive the court of discretion as to the time and mode in which it will exert the powers conferred upon it. That discretion should be exercised in the light of the relations existing, under our system of government, between the judicial tribunals of the Union and of the states, and in recognition of the fact that the public good requires that those relations be not disturbed by unnecessary conflict between courts equally bound to guard and protect rights secured by the Constitution. When the petitioner is in custody by state authority for an act done or omitted to be done in pursuance of a law of the United States, or of an order, process, or decree of a court or judge thereof; or where, being a subject or citizen of a foreign state, and domiciled therein, he is in custody, under like authority, for an act done or omitted under any alleged right, title, authority, privilege, protection, or exemption claimed under the commission, or order, or sanction of any foreign state, or under color thereof, the validity and effect whereof depend upon the law of nations; in such and like cases of urgency, involving the authority and operations of the general government, or the obligations of this country to, or its relations with, foreign nations the courts of the United States have frequently interposed by writs of habeas corpus and discharged prisoners who were held in custody under state authority. So, also, when they are in the custody of a state officer, it may be necessary, by use of the writ, to bring them into a court of the United States to testify as witnesses.' Ex parte Royall, 117 U. S. 241, 250, 29 L. ed. 868, 871, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 734; Ex parte Fonda, 117 U. S. 516, 518, 29 L. ed. 994, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 848; Re Duncan, 139 U. S. 449, 454, sub nom. Duncan v. McCall, 35 L. ed. 219, 222, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 573; Re Wood, 140 U. S. 278, 289, Sub nom. Wood v. Bursh, 35 L. ed. 505, 509, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 738; McElvaine v. Brush, 142 U. S. 155, 160, 35 L. ed. 971, 973, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 156; Cook v. Hart, 146 U. S. 183, 194, 36 L. ed. 934, 939, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 40; Re Frederich, 149 U. S. 70, 75, 37 L. ed. 653, 656, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 793; New York v. Eno, 155 U. S. 89, 96, 39 L. ed. 80, 83, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 30; Pepke v. Cronan, 155 U. S. 100, 39 L. ed. 84, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 34; Re Chapman, 156 U. S. 211, 216, 39 L. ed. 401, 402, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 331; Whitten v. Tomlinson, 160 U. S. 231, 242, 40 L. ed. 406, 412, 16 Sup. Ct. Rep. 297; Iasigi v. Van De Carr, 166 U. S. 391, 395, 41 L. ed. 1045, 1049, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 595; Baker v. Grice, 169 U. S. 284, 290, 42 L. ed. 748, 750, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 323; Tinsley v. Anderson, 171 U. S. 101, 105, 43 L. ed. 91, 96, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 805; Fitts v. McGhee, 172 U. S. 516, 533, 43 L. ed. 535, 543, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 269; Markuson v. Boucher, 175 U. S. 184, 44 L. ed. 124, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 76.

There are cases that come within the exceptions to the general rule. In Loncy's Case, 134 U. S. 372, 375, sub nom. Thomas v. Loney, 33 L. ed. 949, 951, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 584, 585, it appeared that Loney was held in custody by the state authorities under a charge of perjury committed in giving his deposition as a witness before a notary pbulic in Richmond. Virginia, in the case of a contested election of a member of the House of Representatives of the United States. He was discharged upon a writ of habeas corpus sued out from the circuit court of the United States, this court saying: 'The power of punishing a witness for testifying falsely in a judicial proceeding belongs peculiarly to the government in whose tribunals that proceeding is had. It is essential to the impartial and efficient administration of justice in the tribunals of the nation, that witnesses should be able to testify freely before them, unrestrained by legislation of the state, or by fear of punishment in the state courts. The administration of justice in the national tribunals would be greatly embarrassed and impeded if a witness...