Ex Parte Yarbrough

Citations

• 110 U.S. 651
• 4 S. Ct. 152
• 28 L. Ed. 274
• 1884 U.S. LEXIS 1726

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional Law — Indictment—Jurisdiction.</p> <p>This court has no general authority to review on error or appeal the judgments of Circuit Courts in eases within their criminal jurisdiction.</p> <p>When a prisoner is held under'sentence of a court of the United States in a matter wholly beyond the jurisdiction of that court, it is within the authority of the Supreme Court, when the matter is properly brought to its attention, to inquire into it, and to discharge the prisoner if it be found that the matter was not within the jurisdiction- of the court below. -</p> <p>Errors of law committed by a Circuit Court which passed sentence upon a-prisoner, cannot be inquired into in a proceeding on- án application for habeas coYjms to test the jurisdiction-of the court which passed sentence.</p> <p>An indictment which charges in the first count that the defendants conspired to intimidate A. B., a citizen of African descent, in the exercise of his right to vote for a member of the Congress of the United States, and that in the execution'of that conspiracy they beat, bruised, wounded, and otherwise maltreated him ; and in the second count that they did this on account of his race, color, and previous condition of servitude, by going in disguise and , assaulting him on the public highway and on his own premises, contains a sufficient description of an offence embraced within the provisions of §§5508,' 5530 Bev. Stat. '</p> <p>In construing the Constitution of the Unijted States, the doctrine that what. is implied is as much a part of the instrument as what is expressed is á necessity by reason of the inherent inability to put all derivative powers into words.</p> <p>§ 4 of article I. of the Constitution, which declares that “ the times, places, and manner of holding elections.for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof, but the Congress may at any time make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing sena