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supervision and control of Congress or of the head of any of the executive departments.

The Supreme Court said that by the Constitution, Congress may authorize appeals to it only "from such inferior Courts as Congress may ordain or establish to carry into effect the judicial power specifically granted to the United States. The inferior Court, therefore, from which the appeal is taken must be a judicial tribunal authorized to render a judgment which will bind the rights of the parties litigating before it unless appealed from." * * * "Congress cannot extend the appellate power" of the Supreme Court "beyond the limits prescribed by the Constitution, and can neither confer nor impose on it the authority and duty of hearing and determining an appeal from a commissioner or auditor or any other tribunal exercising only special powers under an Act of Congress, nor can Congress authorize and require the Supreme Court to express an opinion on a case where its judicial power could not be exercised and where its judgment could not be final and conclusive upon the rights of the parties."

Subsequently the objectionable part of the Act of 1863 was repealed. Thereafter judgments of the Court of Claims were held to be final judgments, subject to be affirmed or reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court. It is true that they can not be enforced against the United States, if Congress does not see fit to appropriate money for their payment, because there is no other process known to the law by which money in the treasury of the United States can be taken out of it. The fact that a suitor before a Court may be execution proof does not make the investigation and determination of a claim against him any less a judicial matter. The Court of Claims is now one of the inferior Courts of the United States. Its jurisdiction will be later discussed.

57. Court of Customs Appeals.-The Court of Customs Appeals was established by the Act of August 5, 1909.1 ́ It consists of a presiding Judge and four Associates. It was

5 Act March 17, 1866; 14 Stat. 9.

United States vs. Klein, supra. 136 Stat. 105.

4

created for the purpose of reviewing on appeal final decisions of the Board of General Appraisers as to the construction of the law and the facts respecting the classification of merchandise, the rate of duty imposed thereon under such classification and the fees and charges connected therewith, and upon all appealable questions as to the jurisdiction of such board, and as to the law and regulations governing the collection of the customs revenue. The decisions of the Court of Customs Appeals are in most cases final; in some of exceptional importance its action may be reviewed by the Supreme Court.2 The purpose of its creation was to relieve the then existing Circuit Courts of the United States of the labor of passing upon questions as to the classification of merchandise under the tariff Acts and the rates of duty to which various articles were liable. The Circuit Courts in different circuits and the Circuit Courts of Appeal therein might well give different answers to the same question. Uniformity in customs administration could in that event be secured only by carrying the controversy to the Supreme Court of the United States. Its time is too valuable for much of it to be taken up with such questions. In matters of taxation it usually does not make so much difference what the rate is, as it does whether it is certain and uniform.

58. Commerce Court.-This Court was created by the Act of June 18, 1910.1 It had jurisdiction over most proceedings to enforce, and over all to enjoin, set aside, annul or suspend, any order of the Interstate Commerce Commission. It was composed of five Judges, specially appointed in the first instance by the President. They became by virtue of such appointment Circuit Judges of the United States. One of these Judges was to sit in the Commerce Court for a year, another for two, a third for three, a fourth for four and a fifth for five years. At the expiration of the term of each of them he was to be sent to some circuit to be designated by the Chief Justice of the United States, and a Circuit

Act of Aug. 22, 1914.

136 Stat. 539.

Judge, also to be selected by the Chief Justice, was to be assigned to take his place in the Commerce Court. The impeachment of one of its Judges and the subsequent provision of an Act of Congress that no appointment should be made to fill the vacancy, reduced the number of its members to four. The Court was itself abolished by a provision of the deficiency appropriation bill of October 22, 1913. It was provided that the Judges of the Court should remain Circuit Judges of the United States, and should from time to time be designated to sit by the Chief Justice of the United States in different districts or circuits.

CHAPTER III.

THE CRIMINAL JURISDICTION AND PROCEDURE OF THE FEDERAL COURTS.

59. Jurisdiction of the Several Courts of the United States. The organization of the United States Courts has been sufficiently discussed. The jurisdiction of each of them must next be considered.

60. The District Courts.-The District Courts are, for most matters, the only Federal Courts of original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over the few cases named in the Constitution. The Court of Customs

Appeals does not, it is true, hear appeals from other Courts, but it deals only with matters or issues which have been previously passed upon by the Board of General Appraisers. The last named is technically an administrative board. Its functions and modes of proceeding are not unlike those of a Court. The Court of Claims is not in any sense an appellate tribunal, but it has jurisdiction of only one class of controversies.

There are certain kinds of actions and proceedings within the grant of judicial power to the United States, which may not be brought in the State Courts at all. There are others. which at the option of the parties may be instituted in either the State or the Federal tribunals.

61. The Exclusive Jurisdiction of Courts of the United States. By the Judicial Code the jurisdiction of the Courts of the United States is made exclusive in eight classes of cases, viz:

Crimes and offenses cognizable under the laws of the United States.

2.

Penalties and forfeitures under those laws.

3. Civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction.

4.

Seizures under the laws of the United States otherwise than in admiralty and prizes brought into the United States. 5. Cases under the patent or copyright laws.

6. All matters and proceedings in bankruptcy.

7. All controversies of a civil nature where a State is a party, except between a State and its citizens or between a State and citizens of other States or aliens.

8. (a) All such suits and proceedings against ambassadors or other public ministers, their domestics or domestic servants as may consistently with the law of nations be enter tained by a Court of law.

(b) Suits and proceedings against consuls or vice-consuls. Exclusive original jurisdiction over the first six of these is conferred upon the District Courts. The Supreme Court is given such exclusive original jurisdiction over the seventh class and over "a" subdivision of the eighth class. The Supreme and the District Courts have concurrent original Jurisdiction over the "b" subdivision of the last named.1

62. District Courts Have Exclusive Jurisdiction to Enforce the Criminal, Penal and Quasi Penal Legislation of the United States. It is only in its own Courts that the United States may proceed to enforce its own criminal, penal or quasi penal legislation. The District Courts have, therefore, exclusive jurisdiction of all crimes and offenses against the United States, of all suits for penalties and forfeitures incurred, and of all seizures made under the laws of the United States.

63. Every Criminal Prosecution in the United States Court Must Charge the Violation of a Specific Federal Statute.-Because the Federal Courts have no common law criminal jurisdiction, every prosecution in them must charge the violation of some specific Federal statute. The District Attorney usually endorses on the indictment or information a reference to the statute under which it is framed. This endorsement is not a part of the indictment. 1 Judicial Code, sections 256 and 233.

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