Court : US Supreme Court
..... construction to the clause so deeply harsh and unjust in its consequences, both as it respects the public and individual rights and interests, upon so narrow a foundation. but there are other difficulties in the way of this construction. the eleventh section, regulating the rights of assignees and grantees, provides, "that every patent ..... 1843, the administrator assigned his right to wilson, in and for the state of maryland. on the 26th of february, 1845, congress passed the following act. "an act to extend a patent heretofore granted to william woodworth." "be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the united states of america in congress ..... in arranging their several rights and obligations, in dealing with property of this description, rather than to any possible change that might be effected by private acts of congress upon individual application. contracts are usually made with reference to the established law of the land, and should be so understood and construed, .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... must come within this category. page 46 u. s. 632 as subjects of legislation, they are from their very nature of primary importance; they lie at the foundation of social existence; they are for the protection of life and liberty, and necessarily compel all laws on subjects of secondary importance, which relate only to property, ..... the whole of the laws of the state, as they were very similar to those of massachusetts. the following one will be sufficient: "an act in addition to an act entitled 'an act enabling the town councils to grant licenses, and for other purposes.'" "it is enacted by the general assembly as follows:" "section 1. ..... powers over everything connected with their social and internal condition. a state regulates its domestic commerce, contracts, the transmission of estates, real and personal, and acts upon all internal matters which relate to its moral and political welfare. over these subjects the federal government has no power. they appertain to the state sovereignty .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... in the second section of that act; first -- "the courts shall have full power and authority to hear and determine all questions in said cause relative to the title of the claimant. second, the ..... the courts to adjudge incipient titles such as the present is, the political power could alone finally pass on them, and congress uniformly did so. by that act the courts were invested with the jurisdiction that congress had previously exercised; but to an extent considerably limited. the governing rules of adjudication, as prescribed, are found ..... be sold by them." "this was all-important to the correct operations of the land office, and of deep concern to the claimants, and by the act of congress the decree of this court is made final and conclusive upon the parties unless appealed from. to make a decree, therefore, which merely settles the .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the majority of the court, will, it is hoped, prove a sufficient apology for justifying that difference in some detail. a great principle at the foundation of our political system applies strongly to the present case, and is that while supporting all the powers clearly granted to the general government, we ought ..... year that the ordinance of the republican government in england expired by the restoration? that ordinance revived much of the ancient jurisdiction in admiralty. it was judicially acted upon in england for twelve years. when it expired there, the enlightened influences connected with trade and foreign commerce, "and page 46 u. s. ..... from either source, they exercised a jurisdiction over all maritime contracts and over torts and injuries, as well in ports as upon the high seas? -- that acts of parliament recognized their jurisdiction as original maritime jurisdiction, in all seizures for contravention of the revenue laws? was not a larger jurisdiction in admiralty exercised in .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... being a deed of bargain and sale, and not a donation, is void and can in no manner be the foundation of any title, not being executed by the governor of the territory of michigan, as required by the act of congress in virtue of which it purports to have been made and executed, and therefore the plaintiff cannot recover. ..... of detroit and territory of michigan, and for other purposes,' approved april 21, a.d., 1806, then that by consequence it followed and resulted that the said act entitled 'an act to incorporate the members of the detroit young men's society' was without authority, and in contemplation of law did not create nor constitute the lessors of the ..... 56 or the premises in question to the said lessors of the plaintiff, nor to perform any other of the functions nor exercise the powers previously conferred by any act or acts of congress upon the territorial judges of said territory of michigan." "fourth. but if the said jury should find that the said solomon sibley, george morell, and .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... which, as their decisions were subject to the appellate power of the high court at home, with few exceptions, and those by act of parliament, were confined within the same limits. this is the foundation of the argument in support of the restricted jurisdiction, and which, it is claimed, excludes the contract in question. under the statutes ..... , and careful investigation. i approach that investigation with the diffidence which its widespread interest and importance and a deep conviction of my own deficiencies cannot but awaken. the foundation -- nay the whole extent and fabric -- of the admiralty page 47 u. s. 396 power of the government are to be found in that portion of the ..... some expressions which may have fallen from some of the judges arguendo, it is certainly true that every justice who decided that case put his opinion essentially upon these foundations -- that the case was one of a hypothecation of the ship, in the course of a foreign voyage, by the master, who had a right to .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... to be in being and the like power in the government to resume or extinguish a franchise. the distinction thus attempted we regard as a refinement which has no foundation in reason, and one that in truth avoids the true legal or constitutional question in these causes -- namely that of the right in private persons, in the use ..... a person or the corporeal being is less. for as a question of the power to appropriate to public uses the property of private persons, resting upon the ordinary foundations of private right, there would seem to be room neither for doubt nor difficulty. a distinction page 47 u. s. 534 has been attempted in argument between the ..... impairing the obligation of a contract unless compensation be made, but the inhibition is absolute. so that if such an act come within the prohibition, the act is unconstitutional. but this power has been exercised by the states since the foundation of the government, and no page 47 u. s. 539 one has supposed that it was prohibited by that .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... their daily existence by selling off their securities or their own paper. their establishment rests upon the idea of their possessing funds of their own as the foundation of their credit and of their circulation. the practice of becoming brokers for the sale of their own paper or the paper of their customers to put ..... to questions merely of property or of individual interests; but embracing as it does a construction of the constitution, and annulling at the same time a legislative act of a sovereign state, i cannot feel warranted in yielding by silence a seeming approbation of conclusions which my judgment entirely repels. my deliberate opinion, then, ..... their motives in passing laws, and they require a fair, rather than hypercritical, view of well intended provisions in them. those public bodies must be presumed to act from public considerations, being in a high public trust, and when their measures relate to matters of general interest and can be vindicated under express or justly implied .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... word of more limited meaning contained in the constitution. in either view, therefore, of the meaning to be attached to this word intercourse, it can form no foundation for an argument to support the power now claimed for the general government. and if commerce with foreign nations could be construed to include the intercourse of persons and ..... to determine who may come and live in them, the united states may introduce into the southern states emancipated negroes from the west indies and elsewhere, has no foundation. it is not an allowable inference from the denial of that position, or the assertion of the reverse of it. all the political sovereignty of the united states ..... be the policy or pleasure of the united states to admit. in my judgment this question lies at the foundation of the controversy in this case. i do not mean to say that the general government has, by treaty or act of congress, required the state of massachusetts to permit the aliens in question to land. page 48 u. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... farms; again, a reward for military services; sometimes the liquidation and settlement of previously existing contracts. of all these considerations, and of many others, which were the foundation of grants of land by the spanish governor, the records of this court afford ample evidence. page 48 u. s. 884 in this state of the country, ..... which will not be acquiesced in by my associates in this court, when the subject shall be fully examined, in saying that congress cannot constitutionally pass an act taking from the inhabitants of louisiana, or those of any other purchased territory now making a part of the united states, any property guaranteed to them, ..... by the king -- evidently referring to the royal order which was before mentioned in this instrument, and showing that the provincial officers who signed it were acting under special authority, and not under their general powers to grant land. every expression in this instrument indicates that it was executed to remove doubts which might .....
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