Whitney v. George Dick No 494 Whitney v. George Dick No 557

• Decision Date: 30 April 1906
• Docket Number: 557,Nos. 494,s. 494
• Citation: 26 S.Ct. 584,202 U.S. 132,50 L.Ed. 963
• Parties: E. L. WHITNEY, Warden of the Idaho State Penitentiary, Appt. , v. GEORGE DICK, Appellee , NO 494. E. L. WHITNEY, Warden of the Idaho State Penitentiary, Petitioner , v. GEORGE DICK, Respt . NO 557
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

202 U.S. 132

26 S.Ct. 584

50 L.Ed. 963

E. L. WHITNEY, Warden of the Idaho State Penitentiary, Appt.,

v GEORGE DICK, Appellee, NO 494. E. L. WHITNEY, Warden of the Idaho State Penitentiary, Petitioner, v. GEORGE DICK, Respt. NO 557.

Nos. 494, 557.

Submitted April 3, 1906.

Decided April 30, 1906.

On May 16, 1905, the respondent in these two cases was convicted in the district court of the United States for the district of Idaho, northern division, on the charge of unlawfully and feloniously introducing intoxicating liquors into the Nez Perce Indian reservation, and sentenced to pay a fine of $100 and be confined in the penitentiary for the term of one year and ten days. On July 21, 1905, a bill of exceptions was duly prepared and signed. Thereafter, without suing out a writ of error, respondent applied to the circuit court of appeals of the ninth circuit for writs of habeas corpus and of certiorari. It does not affirmatively appear that any writ of habeas corpus was issued, the record in the court of appeals reciting:

'The petition in the above-entitled matter for a writ of habeas corpus and a writ of certiorari having been duly submitted to the court, and the petition for a writ of certiorari therein having been granted, and a writ of certiorari having been issued, directed to the honorable the United States district court for the district of Idaho, and requiring the said district court to certify to this court a transcript of the record and proceedings in the suit therein of the United States v. George Dick, and the return to the said writ of certiorari having been filed, the matter was duly argued and submitted to the court for consideration and decision upon the said return and upon the briefs of counsel for the respective parties.

'On consideration whereof, and the court being of the opinion that the United States district court for the district of Idaho did not have jurisdiction of the offense charged in the indictment found against the petitioner in the suit of the United States v. George Dick, it is ordered and adjudged that the petitioner, George Dick, be discharged from imprisonment.'

From this order of discharge, Whitney, as warden of the Idaho state penitentiary (the respondent named in the petition for a habeas corpus), perfected an appeal to this court, and that appeal is case No. 494. Subsequently he applied for a writ of certiorari, to review the decision of the court of appeals, which was allowed, and that is case No. 557. The record in case No. 494 was directed to stand as the return to the writ of certiorari. Both the appeal and the certiorari were taken by the warden, appearing by the United States attorney for the district of Idaho, under the direction of the Attorney General of the United States.

Solicitor General Hoyt for appellant and petitioner.

Mr. Frank E. Fogg for appellee and respondent.

Statement by Mr. Justice Brewer:

Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the court:

The first question is, of course, one of jurisdiction. Final orders of the circuit court of appeals may of right be brought to this court only where the matter in dispute exceeds in value $1,000. As there is no amount in controversy, the appeal was unauthorized and must be dismissed. Lau Ow Bew v. United States, 144 U. S. 47, 58, 36 L. ed. 340, 344, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 517. But by certiorari the judgment of the court of appeals is properly before us. Re Chetwood, 165 U. S. 443, 462, 41 L. ed. 782, 788, 17 Sup.Ct.Rep. 385.

Had the court of appeals jurisdiction to issue separately either a writ of certiorari or one of habeas corpus, or the two jointly? And, first, as to the writ of habeas corpus. Undoubtedly that writ is one of high privilege. We are not confronted with the case of a failure by Congress to make any provision vision for it. Under § 751, Rev. Stat. (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 592), the Supreme, circuit, and district courts may issue writs of habeas corpus, and by § 752 (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 592), like power is given to the several justices and judges of said courts for the purpose of inquiry into the cause of restraint of liberty. Thus adequate provision has been made for securing to everyone entitled thereto the writ of habeas corpus. So, when Congress passes an act establishing a new court, there is no constraining presumption that it must intend to give to that court jurisdiction in habeas corpus. The court of appeals act (26 Stat. at L. 826, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 488) does not in terms grant authority to issue the writ. It is silent on the subject, and in order to sustain its jurisdiction we must write something into the statute which Congress itself did not put there. In this we are speaking of the writ of habeas corpus as an original and independent proceeding, for by § 12 of the act 'the circuit court of appeals shall have the powers specified in § 716 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 580).' Section 716 provides that 'the Supreme Court and the circuit and district courts shall have power to issue writs of scire facias. They shall also have power to issue all writs not specifically provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.' Cases may arise in which the writ of habeas corpus is necessary to the complete exercise of the appellate jurisdiction vested in the circuit court of appeals. But it is unnecessary to speculate under what circumstances such an exigency may exist, for the writ, asked for here was an independent and original proceeding challenging in toto the validity of a judgment rendered in another court. There was no proceeding of an appellate character pending in the court of appeals, for the complete exercise of jurisdiction in which any auxiliary writ of habeas corpus was requisite. Appellate proceedings are, generally speaking, initiated by appeals and writs of error, and for these the court of appeals act specifically provides. The writ of habeas corpus is not the equivalent of an appeal or writ of error. It is not a proceeding to correct errors which may have occurred in a trial of the case below. It is an attack directly upon the validity of the judgment, and, as has been frequently said, it cannot be transformed into a writ of error. It is doubtless true that if the language of the court of appeals act was fairly susceptible of two constructions, one granting and the other omitting to grant power to issue a writ of habeas corpus, the great importance of the writ might justify a construction upholding the grant. This is indicated by the ruling in Ex parte Bollman, 4 Cranch, 75, 2 L. ed. 554. The 14th section of the original judiciary act contained this language: 'That all the before-mentioned courts of the United States shall have power to issue writs of scire facias, habeas corpus, and all other writs not specially provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, and agreeable to the principles and usages of law.' [1 Stat. at L. 81, chap. 20, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 580.] And the question presented was whether the grant of power to issue a writ of habeas corpus was an absolute and independent grant or one simply authorizing the issue of the writ when necessary for and in aid of the exercise of a jurisdiction already otherwise obtained, and it was held to be an absolute and independent grant, the conclusion being placed by Chief Justice Marshall, delivering the opinion of the court, partly on the grammatical construction of the section and partly on the significance and importance of the writ itself. But in the court of appeals act there is no mention of habeas corpus, no language which can be tortured into a grant of power to issue the writ, except in cases where it may be necessary for the exercise of a jurisdiction already existing.

It will be borne in mind that the circuit court of appeals, which is a court created by statute (Kentucky v. Powers, 201 U. S. 1, 24, 50 L. ed. ——, 26 Sup.Ct.Rep. 387), is not in terms endowed with any original jurisdiction. It is only a court of appeal. Section 2 of the act says that it 'shall be a court of record with appellate jurisdiction, as is hereafter limited and established.' Section 6 provides that it 'shall exercise appellate jurisdiction to review by appeal or by writ of error final decision in the district court and the existing circuit courts in all cases,' etc. By § 10, 'Whenever, on appeal or writ of error, or otherwise, a case coming . . . from a circuit court of appeals shall be reviewed and determined in the Supreme Court, the cause shall be remanded by the Supreme Court to the proper district or circuit court for further proceedings in pursuance of such determination.' [26 Stat. at L. 826, 828, 829, chap. 517, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, pp. 547, 550, 552.] Sections 4, 13, and 15 name the courts whose judgments may be reviewed in the courts of appeals. Obviously, the courts of appeal are simply given appellate jurisdiction over certain specified courts. It follows that they are not authorized to issue original and independent writs of habeas corpus.

Have they jurisdiction to issue writs of certiorari? As we have seen, the procedure prescribed by the statute for bring- ing to the courts of appeal those final decisions of courts which they are authorized to review is appeal or writ of error, and that, in this country, is the ordinary method by which review is obtained in an appellate court. Especially is this true of the Federal procedure, the only instance in which certiorari is named as the writ for the removal of cases from a lower to a higher court being in the authority given to this court to bring up cases fro...