No. 2571. Book 4, tit. 4, div. 1, chap. 2, sec. 2, § 2. No. 2571. office and duty, and which the superior court has previously determined, or at least supposes, to be consonant to right and justice. The act so often cited gives this court the power to issue writs of mandamus in cases warranted by the principles and usages of law, to any court or person appointed, holding office under the authority of the United States. The issuing of a mandamus to courts is the exercise of appellate jurisdiction, and therefore constitutionally vested in the supreme court; but a mandamus directed to a public officer, belongs to original jurisdiction, and, by the constitution, the exercise of original jurisdiction by the supreme court is restricted to certain specified cases, which do not comprehend a mandamus. That part of the section which gives power to the supreme court to issue writs of mandamus to "persons holding office, under the authority of the United States," is not warranted by the constitution, and is void. (a) § 2. Of the criminal jurisdiction of the supreme court. 2571. The criminal jurisdiction of the supreme court is derived from the constitution and the act so often cited,(b) which gives the supreme court exclusive jurisdiction of suits and proceedings against ambassadors, or other public ministers, or their domestics, as a court of law can have consistently with the law of nations. But it must be remembered that the act of April 30, 1790, ss. 25 and 26, declare void any writ or process whereby the person of any ambassador, or other public minister, their domestics or domestic servants, may be arrested or imprisoned. (a) Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch, 175. See 3 Dall. 42; 9 Wheat. 529. (b) Act of September 24, 1789, s. 13. No. 2572. Book 4, tit. 4, div. 2, chap. 1, sec. 1, § 1. No. 2575. Division 2.-Of the local courts of the United States. 2572. The local courts of the United States have jurisdiction only over a limited territory, some larger and others smaller; they are circuit courts, district courts, and territorial courts. CHAPTER I.-OF THE CIRCUIT COURTS. 2573. In treating of the circuit courts it will be convenient to consider, 1, their organization; 2, their jurisdiction. SECTION 1.-OF THE ORGANIZATION OF CIRCUIT COURTS. 2574. This section will be divided into the following heads: 1, of the circuits; 2, of the judges; 3, of the officers of the courts; 4, the time and place of holding the courts; 5, of the removal of causes. § 1. Of the circuit courts. 2575. The circuit courts are the principal inferior courts established by congress. There are nine circuit courts, which have jurisdiction respectively over their own circuits, as follows, to wit: 1. The first circuit is composed of the districts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine.(a) 2. The second circuit is composed of the districts of Vermont, Connecticut, and Northern and Southern New York.(b) 3. The third circuit consists of the districts of New Jersey and Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. (c) (a) Acts of April 29, 1802; March 26, 1812; March 30, 1820. (c) Ib. No. 2576. Book 4, tit. 4, div. 2, chap. 1, sec. 1, § 1. No. 2577. 4. The fourth circuit includes the districts of Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. (a) 5. The fifth circuit is composed of the districts of Alabama and Louisiana.(b) 6. The sixth circuit consists of the districts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. (c) 7. The seventh circuit is composed of the districts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. (d) 8. The eighth circuit includes the districts of Kentucky, East and West Tennessee, and Missouri.(e) By a subsequent act, (f) it is enacted that the district court of the United States at Jackson, in the district of West Tennessee, shall in future be attached to and form a part of the eighth judicial district of the United States, with all the power and jurisdiction of the circuit court held at Nashville, in the middle district of Tennessee. 9. The ninth district is composed of the districts of Alabama, the Eastern district of Louisiana, the district of Mississippi and the district of Arkansas.(g) 2576. Owing to their remoteness from any justice of the supreme court, in several districts of the United States, there are no circuit courts held. But in these, the district court held there is authorized to act as a circuit court, except so far as relates to writs of error and appeals from judgments and decrees in such district court. 2577. By the act of congress, (h) it is provided, "That so much of any act or acts of congress as vests in the district courts of the United States for the districts of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, the eastern district of Louisiana, the district of Mississippi, the northern district of New York, the western district of Virginia, and the western district of Pennsylvania, (a) Act of Aug. 16, 1842. (c) Ib. (d) Act of March 3, 1837, s. 1. (e) Act of March 3, 1837. (f) Act of April 14, 1842, s. 1. No. 2578. Book 4, tit. 4, div. 2, chap. 1, sec. 1, § 2. No. 2579. and the district of Alabama, or either of them, the power and jurisdiction of circuit courts, be, and the same is hereby repealed; and there shall hereafter be circuit courts held for said districts by the chief or associate justices of the supreme court, assigned or allotted to the circuit to which such districts may respectively belong, and the district judges of such districts severally and respectively, either of whom shall constitute a quorum; which circuit courts, and the judges thereof, shall have like powers, and exercise like jurisdiction as other circuit courts and the judges thereof; and the said district courts, and the judges thereof, shall have like powers, and exercise like jurisdiction, as the district courts, and the judges thereof in the other circuits. From all judgments and decrees, rendered in the district courts of the United States for the western district of Louisiana, writs of error and appeals shall lie to the circuit court in the other district in said state, in the same manner as from decrees and judgments rendered in the districts within which a circuit court is provided by this act." 2578. In the District of Columbia, there is a circuit court established by particular acts of congress, composed of a chief justice and two associates.(a) § 2. Of the judges of the circuit court. 2579. The justices of the supreme court are allotted among the circuits; the judge of the supreme court allotted to a particular circuit, and the district judge of the district where the court is holden, compose the judges of the circuit court. The district judge may alone hold a circuit court, though no judge of the supreme court may be allotted to that circuit.(b) (a) See Act of February 27, 1801; 7 Pet. 203; 12 Pet. 524; 3 Cranch, 159; 6 Cranch, 233; 8 Čranch, 251; 7 Wheat. 534. (6) Pollard v. Dwight, 4 Cranch, 421. No. 2580. Book 4, tit. 4, div. 2, chap. 1, sec. 1, § 2. No. 2580. The act of congress (a) provides, that on every appointment which shall thereafter be made of a chief justice, or associate justice, the chief justice and associate justices shall allot among themselves the aforesaid circuits as they shall think fit, and shall enter such allotment of record. And by a subsequent act, (b) it is directed that the allotment of the chief justice and the associate justices of the said supreme court to the several circuits shall be made as theretofore. And, by a later act, the justices of the supreme court are required to allot the several districts among themselves. And in case no such allotment shall be made by them, at their sessions next succeeding such appointment, and also, after the appointment of any judge as aforesaid, and before any other allotment shall have been made, it shall and may be lawful for the president of the United States to make such allotment as he shall deem proper-which allotment, in either case, shall be binding until another allotment shall be made. And the circuit courts constituted by this act shall have all the power, authority and jurisdiction, within the several districts of their respective circuits, that before the 13th February, 1801, belonged to the circuit courts of the United States. 2580. The judges of the supreme court are not appointed as circuit court judges, or, in other words, have no distinct commission for that purpose; but practice and acquiescence under it, for many years, were held to afford an answer against this objection to their authority to act, when made in the year 1803, and to have fixed the construction of the judicial system. The court deemed the contemporary exposition to be of the most forcible nature, and considered the question at rest and not to be disturbed. (c) (a) Act of April 29, 1802, s. 5. |