An indictment under the crimes act of 1790, ch. 35, s. 37, for
infracting the law of nations by offering violence to the person of
a foreign minister is not a case "affecting ambassadors, other
public ministers and consuls" within the second section of the
Third Article of the Constitution of the United States.
The circuit courts have jurisdiction of such an offense under
the eleventh section of the Judiciary Act of 1789, ch. 20.
Quaere whether the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is
not only original, but exclusive of the circuit court, in "cases
affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls" within
the true construction of the second section of the third article of
the Constitution
MR. JUSTICE WASHINGTON delivered the opinion of the Court.
The defendant, Juan Gualberto de Ortega, was indicted in the
Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania for infracting the law of nations by offering violence
to the person of Hilario de Rivas y Salmon, the charge d'affaires
of his Catholic Majesty the King of Spain in the United States
contrary to the law of nations and to the act of the Congress of
the United States in such case provided. The jury having found a
verdict of guilty, the defendant moved in arrest of judgment and
assigned for cause
"that the circuit court has not jurisdiction of the matter
charged in the indictment, inasmuch as it is a case affecting an
ambassador or other public minister."
The opinions of the judges of that court upon this point being
opposed, the cause comes before this Court upon a certificate of
such disagreement.
The questions to which the point certified by the court below
gives rise are first, whether this is a case affecting an
ambassador or other public minister within the meaning of the
second section of the third article of the Constitution of the
United States. If it be, then the next question would be whether
the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in such cases is not only
original, but exclusive of the circuit courts under the true
construction of the above section and article.
The last question need not be decided in the present case,
because the Court is clearly of
Page 24 U. S. 469
opinion that this is not a case affecting a public minister
within the plain meaning of the Constitution. It is that of a
public prosecution instituted and conducted by and in the name of
the United States for the purpose of vindicating the law of nations
and that of the United States, offended, as the indictment charges,
in the person of a public minister by an assault committed on him
by a private individual. It is a case, then, which affects the
United States and the individual whom they seek to punish, but one
in which the minister himself, although he was the person injured
by the assault, has no concern, either in the event of the
prosecution or in the costs attending it.
It is ordered to be certified to the Circuit Court for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania that that court has jurisdiction
of the matter charged in the indictment, the case not being one
which affects an ambassador or other public minister.
Certificate accordingly.