Under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789,
three things are necessary to give the Supreme Court jurisdiction
of a case brought up by writ of error or appeal.
1. The validity of a statute of the United States, or of an
authority exercised under a state must be drawn in question.
2. It must be drawn in question on the ground that it
is repugnant to the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the
United States.
3. The decision of the state court must be in favor of its
validity.
When the decision of a state court is against the validity of a
state statute as contrary to the Constitution of the United States,
a writ of error does not lie to the Supreme Court upon such a
judgment.
Mr. McGinnis, of counsel for the defendant in error, moved the
Court to dismiss this writ of error for want of jurisdiction.
The action was originally instituted in the Ninth Judicial
Circuit of the State of Missouri on a promissory note given by the
defendant in error to the Commonwealth Bank of Kentucky for the
notes of that bank to the amount of the promissory note. To this
action the defendant pleaded several pleas, and among them was one
which presented the questions whether the charter of the
Commonwealth Bank of Kentucky was a violation of the Constitution
of the United States and whether the notes of the bank were not
"bills of credit." The judgment of the circuit court was given in
favor of the plaintiff, and the defendant removed the cause to the
Supreme Court of Missouri by a writ of error.
In the supreme court, the judgment of the circuit court was
reversed, the court deciding that the notes of the bank were "bills
of credit," and prohibited by the Constitution of the United
States. The Bank of the Commonwealth prosecuted this writ of error,
under the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789.
Page 39 U. S. 57
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY delivered the opinion of the Court.
A motion has been made to dismiss the writ of error in this
case, upon the ground that this Court have not jurisdiction.
It appears from the record that an action was brought in the
Circuit Court of the State of Missouri, for the County of Calloway,
by the plaintiff in error in order to recover the amount due on a
promissory note given by the defendant and others to the bank. The
defendants, among other things, pleaded
"That the note sued on was made by the defendants to the
plaintiffs, in consideration of the paper of the said Bank of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky, and that the said paper was bills of
credit, within the meaning of the Constitution of the United
States, issued on the credit of the state."
The circuit court overruled this plea, and gave judgment for the
plaintiffs. The defendants removed the case to the supreme court of
the state, where the question above mentioned was again raised, and
it was then decided that the notes of the bank were bills of
credit, within the meaning of the Constitution of the United
States, and that the contract upon which the note in question was
given was therefore void, and upon that ground the judgment of the
circuit court was reversed, and judgment entered for the
defendants. The point is, can this judgment of the state court be
reexamined here?
The question depends altogether upon the construction of the
second clause of the twenty-fifth section of the act of 1789, which
provides that the final judgment or decree of the highest court of
Law or equity in a state in which a decision could be had may be
reexamined in this Court upon a writ of error
"where is drawn in question the validity of a statute of, or an
authority exercised under any state, on the ground of their being
repugnant to the Constitution,
Page 39 U. S. 58
treaties, or laws of the United States, and the decision is in
favor of such their validity."
Under this clause of the act of Congress, three things must
concur to give this Court jurisdiction.
1. The validity of a statute of a state, or of an authority
exercised under a state, must be drawn in question.
2. It must be drawn in question upon the ground that it is
repugnant to the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the United
States.
3. The decision of the state court must be in favor of their
validity.
In the case before us, the validity of the statute of the State
of Kentucky which chartered the Commonwealth Bank, and the
authority exercised under that charter, were drawn in question in
the state court, and they were questioned upon the ground of their
being repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. But the
decision was against their validity, and not in favor of it, and
consequently the third contingency which is necessary to give
jurisdiction to this Court has not arisen.
In the case of
Briscoe v. Commonwealth
Bank, 11 Pet. 257, the decision of the state court
was in favor of the validity of the statute. The party therefore
who denied its validity and alleged that it was repugnant to the
Constitution of the United States was entitled to have that
question reexamined in the Supreme Court. But it is otherwise, by
the plain words of the law, when the decision of the state court is
against the validity of the state statute or the authority
exercised under it.
The policy of this distinction is obvious enough. The power
given to the Supreme Court by this act of Congress was intended to
protect the general government in the free and uninterrupted
exercise of the powers conferred on it by the Constitution, and to
prevent any serious impediment from being thrown in its way while
acting within the sphere of its legitimate authority. The right was
therefore given to this Court to reexamine the judgments of the
state courts, where the relative powers of the general and state
government had been in controversy, and the decision had been in
favor of the latter. It may have been apprehended that the judicial
tribunals of the states would incline to the support of state
authority, against that of the general government, and might,
moreover, in different states give different judgments upon the
relative powers of the two governments, so as to produce
irregularity and disorder in the administration of the general
government. But when, as in the case before us, the state authority
or state statute is decided to be unconstitutional and void in the
state tribunal, it cannot under that decision come in collision
with the authority of the general government, and the right to
reexamine it here is not necessary to protect this government in
the exercise of its rightful powers. In such a case, therefore, the
writ of error is not given, and the one now before us must be
Dismissed for want of jurisdiction.
Page 39 U. S. 59
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record
from the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri, holden at the Town
of Fayette, in the County of Howard in and for the First Judicial
District of said state, and was argued by counsel. On consideration
whereof, it is not here ordered and adjudged by this Court, that
this writ of error to the said Supreme Court be, and the same is
hereby, dismissed for the want of jurisdiction.
