Jack v. Kansas

Citations

• 199 U.S. 372
• 26 S. Ct. 73
• 50 L. Ed. 234
• 1905 U.S. LEXIS 1014

Syllabus

<p>This court is bound by the decision of the highest court óf a State that a state statute does not violate any provision of the state constitution and is valid so far as that instrument is concerned.</p> <p>The first ten amendments to the Federal Constitution operate on the National Government only and were not intended to, and did not, limit the powers of the States in respect to their own people.</p> <p>A State cannot by statute grant immunity to a- witness from prosecution by the United States for violation'of a Federal statute, or prevent the testimony given by him under compulsion of the statute from being used against him in a prosecution by the United States, and the absence of such immunity from prosecution by the United States, does not necessarily invalidate the statute under the Fourteenth Amendment.</p> <p>The provisions in the Kansas anti-trust law, as construed by the highest court of that State, compelling witnesses to testify as to violations of the act, and granting immunity from prosecution for violations testified to, or the use of the testimony against the witness, are not void under the Fourteenth Amendment, because immunity from Federal prosecution is not granted; and one committed, in accord with the provisions of the statute, for contempt for refusing to testify to acts within his knowledge is not deprived of his liberty without due process of law.</p>