Leeper v. Texas

Citations

• 139 U.S. 462
• 11 S. Ct. 577
• 35 L. Ed. 225
• 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2397

Syllabus

<p>It must be regarded as settled tliat a petition for a writ of error forms n<5 part of the record upon which action here is taken.</p> <p>To give this court jurisdiction to review the judgment of a state court under section 709 of the Revised Statutes, because of the denial by the state court of any right, title, privilege or immunity claimed under the Constitution, or any treaty of statute of the United States, it must appear on the record that such title, right, privilege or immunity was specially set up or claimed at the proper time and in the proper way.</p> <p>Whether statutes of a legislature of a State have been duly enacted in accordance with £he requirements of the constitution of such State, is not a Federal question, and the decision of state courts as to what are the laws of the State is binding upon the courts of the United States.</p> <p>By the Fourteenth Amendment the powers of States in dealing with crime within their borders are not limited, except that no State can deprive particular persons, or classes of persons, of equal and impartial justice under the law; that law in its regular course of administration through' courts of justice is due process, and when secured by the law of the State the constitutional requirement is satisfied; and that due process is so secured by laws operating on all alike, and not .subjecting the individual to the arbitrary exercise of the powers of government unrestrained by the established principles of private right and distributive justice.</p>