BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS, of Massachusetts.

20, 1851.

Appointed December

JOHN A. CAMPBELL, of Alabama. Appointed March 22, 1853.

§ 513. In addition to the Supreme Court, Congress, under the authority given to establish inferior courts, has established Circuit Courts and District Courts. The United States are divided into nine circuits, one circuit for each of the judges of the Supreme Court. In each of these circuits a Circuit Court is held, which is composed of the judge of the Supreme Court for that circuit, and the district judge for that district. The Circuit Court is held in each circuit twice every year.

§ 514. In addition to the division of the United States into circuits, the States are also, by act of Congress, divided into districts, and a court established in every district, called the District Court of the United States; each State generally forms one district, though some of the larger States are divided into two or more districts.

§ 515. Each court has a clerk appointed by the judge. In each district there is an officer called a marshal, who is appointed by the President and Senate for four years, but removable by the President. He attends the District and Circuit Courts, and executes within his district all their writs. He is the ministerial officer of the court, and his duties correspond generally to those of a sheriff. He gives bond with sureties for the performance of his duties. He appoints deputies, who are also officers of the court, and responsible as such. In each district there is likewise a District Attorney of the United States, who institutes suits for the United States, and conducts the prosecution and trial of all indictments.

§ 516. The fees and costs to be allowed to clerks, marshalls, and attorneys of the Circuit and District Courts of

the United States, are regulated by act of Congress, and any officer wilfully or corruptly receiving other or greater fees than those allowed by the act, is liable to fine and imprisonment.

§ 517. By the original jurisdiction of a court, is meant that jurisdiction which is conferred upon a court in the first instance; appellate jurisdiction is exercised by a court to which an appeal is taken from the judgment of another court. Jurisdiction is also concurrent or exclusive. It is concurrent when it may be exercised by either one of two or more courts; it is exclusive when it can be exercised only by one court.

§ 518. The Circuit Courts have original jurisdiction of all suits of a civil nature where the matter in dispute exceeds $500 exclusive of costs, brought by the United States, or where an alien is a party, or where the suit is between a citizen of the State where the suit is brought, and a citizen of another State. It has also jurisdiction in cases arising under the revenue laws of the United States, and the laws relating to copyrights, and to patents for inventions and discoveries.

§ 519. The District Courts have jurisdiction, among other matters, of certain minor crimes and offences committed within their respective districts, or on the high seas; of admiralty and maritime cases; of seizures under the trade laws, and of penalties and forfeitures incurred under those laws.

An appeal may be taken from the District Court to the Circuit Court, where the matter in dispute, exclusive of costs, exceeds the sum or value of fifty dollars.

SECTION. 2. [Clause 1.] "The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this

Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority; -to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;-to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;-to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;-to Controversies between two or more States;-between a State and Citizens of another State;-between Citizens of different States,-between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects."

§ 520. This clause enumerates in detail the subjects over which the courts of the United States have jurisdiction. They are as follows:

(1.) All cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority.

(2.) All cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls.

(3.) All cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. (4.) Controversies to which the United States shall be a party.

(5.) Controversies between two or more States.

(6.) Controversies between a State and citizens of another State.

(7.) Controversies between citizens of different States. (8.) Controversies between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States.

(9.) Controversies between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects.

§ 521. The above clause, it will be seen, extends the judicial power of the United States to controversies between a State and citizens of another State. Shortly after the adoption of the Constitution, there was much discussion whether this included suits by an individual against a State, as well as suits by a State against an individual. The Supreme Court decided that both classes of suits were equally included within the language of the Consti

tution.

§ 522. The States were dissatisfied with this construction of the Constitution; they were unwilling to be subjected to lawsuits by the citizens of other States, deeming it an attribute of their sovereignty as States, that they could not be sued without their consent. Accordingly an amendment to the Constitution in this respect, was proposed by the third Congress, to the legislatures of the States, and on the 8th of January, 1798, President Adams communicated to Congress, by message, that the amendment had been adopted by three-fourths of the States, and it then became a part of the Constitution.

$523. The amendment constitutes the eleventh in the series of amendments, and is as follows:

"The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, com menced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State."

§ 521. It provides that the judicial power of the United States shall not extend to any suit in law or equity prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of a foreign State.

The prohibition applies only to citizens or subjects, and does not extend to suits by a State, or by a foreign State, against one of the United States. Such suits may be maintained.

[Clause 2.] "In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.”

§ 525. In some of the cases enumerated in the preceding clause, as in those affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction, by which, as we have seen, is meant that those cases may originally, or in the first instance, be brought in the Su preme Court.

§ 526. In all the other cases, the Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction, by which is meant, that those cases must first be brought in the Circuit Court, District Court, or such other inferior court as Congress shall establish, and may then be carried up to the Supreme Court, in order to have the judgment of the inferior court reversed if it be erroneous. But the judgment of a Circuit Court cannot be brought into the Supreme Court to be examined and reversed or affirmed, unless the matter in dispute exceeds two thousand dollars, exclusive of costs.

§ 527. A final judgment or decree in any suit in the highest court of a State, may, by act of Congress, be