United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Ireland v. Woods, 246 U.S. 323 (1918)

Ireland v. Woods

No. 611

Argued March 6, 1918

Decided March 18, 1918

246 U.S. 323

Syllabus

The jurisdiction to review a state court judgment by writ of error under Jud.Code § 237, as amended, is confined to cases in which the validity of a treaty or statute of, or authority exercised under, the United States was drawn in question, and the decision was against the validity, and those in which the validity of a statute of, or an authority exercised under, a state was drawn in question on the ground of repugnancy to the Constitution, treaties or laws of the United States, and the decision was in favor of the validity.

When, however, the state court's judgment upholds the federal treaty, statute or authority, against the claim of invalidity, or denies the validity of the state statute or authority upon an attack based on federal grounds, or when the basis of this Court's jurisdiction is a claim of federal title, right, privilege, or immunity, decided for or against the party claiming, review can be had only by certiorari.

The writ of error is allowed as of right, in the cases designated therefor by the statute, when the federal question presented is real and substantial, and an open one in this Court; but certiorari is granted or refused by this Court in the exercise of its discretion. Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. v. Gilbert, 245 U. S. 162.

The foregoing limitations apply in habeas corpus cases as in others sought to be reviewed under Jud.Code § 237.

Where a person held for interstate rendition obtained habeas corpus upon the ground that he was not a fugitive from justice, basing the contention on a construction of the indictment as to the time of the offense charged and on his view of evidence offered by him touching the time of his presence in the demanding state and his opportunity to commit he offense, held that the contention did not draw in question the validity of the authority exercised under the arresting state by its governor in issuing his warrant and in holding the petitioner for removal, but merely the correctness of the exercise, and that a judgment of the state court holding, on the indictment and

Page 246 U. S. 324

evidence, that petitioner was a fugitive, and dismissing the habeas corpus could not be reviewed by writ of error under Jud.Code § 237.

Writ of error to review 177 App.Div. 1, 221 N.Y. 600, dismissed.

The case is stated in the opinion.