United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

New York v. Eno, 155 U.S. 89 (1894)

New York v. Eno

No. 602

Argued and submitted October 17, 1894

Decided October 29, 1894

155 U.S. 89

Syllabus

Whether an offense described in an indictment in a state court is an offense against the laws of that state and punishable thereunder, or whether it is made by federal statutes an offense against the United States, exclusively cognizable by their courts, and whether the same act may be an offense against both national and state governments, punishable in the tribunals of each without infringing upon the constitutional guaranty against being twice put in jeopardy of limb for the same offense, are questions which a state court of original jurisdiction is competent to decide in the first instance, and (its obligation to render such decision as will give full effect to the supreme law of the land, and protect any right secured by it to the accused, being the same that rests upon the courts of the United States) the latter, if applied to for a writ of habeas corpus in

Page 155 U. S. 90

such case, should decline to issue it unless it also appears that the case is one of urgency.

Ex Parte Royall, 117 U. S. 241, followed, and distinguished from In re Loney, 134 U. S. 372.

The proper time in such case to invoke the jurisdiction of this Court is after the claim of the accused of immunity from prosecution in the state court has been passed upon by the highest court of the state adversely to him.

The case is stated in the opinion.