Ex parte Bartlett

Citations

• 197 F. 98
• 1912 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1389

Syllabus

<p>1. Habeas Corpus (§ 45*) — Federal Jurisdiction.</p> <p>Federal jurisdiction to review the legality of a prisoner’s restraint of liberty under a state writ should not be exercised before trial, unless the act alleged to have been done or omitted has reference to a law of the United States or an order, process, or decree of a federal court, or where the petitioner is a subject or citizen of a foreign state and domiciled therein, and is in custody for an act done or omitted under any alleged right, title, authority, privilege, protection, or exemption claimed under the commission, order, or sanction of a foreign state or under color thereof, the validity and effect of which depend on the law of nations, or in such and like eases of urgency involving the authority of the general government, its obligations to, or its relations with, foreign nations, etc.</p> <p>[Ed. Note. — For other eases, see Habeas Corpus, Cent. Dig. §§ 1096, 1376-1385; Dec. Dig. § 45.*]</p> <p>2. Habeas Corpus (§ 54*) — Federal Jurisdiction — “Exceptional Case oe Peculiar Ursency.”</p> <p>Petitioner, having been arrested for violating the Wisconsin Usury Law (St. Wis. 1898, § 1691, as amended by Laws 1905, c. 278, and Laws 1907, c. 412), making the collection of rates of interest in excess of those specified a misdemeanor, applied to a federal court for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the statute was unconstitutional, and alleged that he had no adequate remedy in the state courts because, if, when tried, he was found guilty, the court would immediately impose- the penalty of imprisonment, and not a fine, having previously inflicted imprisonment as a penalty in other recent cases, and would not stay execution of the sentence pending appeal, that the appeal would be ineffective because the Wisconsin Supreme Court had already decided the statute constitutional and would adhere to its ruling, and that petitioner could not obtain a decision on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Stat