Whitney v. Dick

Citations

• 202 U.S. 132
• 26 S. Ct. 584
• 50 L. Ed. 963
• 1906 U.S. LEXIS 1523

Syllabus

<p>Final orders of the Circuit Court of Appeals may- be brought ,to this court, of right, only where the matter in dispute exceeds $1,000, and there is no appeal where, as in a habeas corpus proceeding, no amount is inyolved.</p> <p>The Circuit Court of Appeals is a court created by statute and is not endowed with any original jurisdiction; and as there is no language in the statute which can be construed into a grant of power to issue a writ of habeas corpus, unless it be one in aid of a jurisdiction already existing, that court is not authorized to issue original and independent-writs of habeas corpus.</p> <p>Although the Circuit Court of Appeals may possess the power, which has been exercised by this Court, to issue independent writs of certiorari, and although it may sometimes be proper in special cases to end litigation by summary process, yet as a rule the ordinary procedure for attacking a judgment in a criminal case is by writ of error, and, where the only question is w'hether'the Federal courts have jurisdiction to punish the crime charged, in this case selling of liquor in the Indian country, and there is no necessity of prompt action to uphold National authority the writ of certiorari should not have been issued.</p>