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138 F.2d 909

Docket No. 10307.

Casement v. Squier

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided Nov. 5, 1943.

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1943-11-05

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"The United States Court for China and the consular courts are legislative courts created as a means of carrying into effect powers conferred by the Constitution respecting treaties and commerce with foreign countries. They exercise their functions within particular districts in foreign territory, and are invested with a large measure of jurisdiction over American citizens in those districts. The authority of Congress to create them and to clothe them with such jurisdiction has been upheld by this Court and is well recognized."”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including In Re Varney's Petition, United States ex rel. Klinger v. Commandant, United States Disciplinary Barracks

Applies 22 U.S.C. § 191

Relies on Ex parte Bakelite Corp. · Dorr v. United States · Ross v. McIntyre

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1943-11-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently December 1970

1 district ·

401943195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1LeRoy L. Lomax, of Portland, Or., for appellant.

¶2J. Charles Dennis, U. S. Atty., of Seattle, Wash., and Harry Sager, Asst. U. S. Atty., of Tacoma, Wash., for appellee.

¶3Before GARRECHT, STEPHENS and HEALY, Circuit Judges.

¶4STEPHENS, Circuit Judge.

¶5Gerald E. Casement, a federal penitentiary prisoner, sought his freedom by applying to the United States District Court Judge for the writ of habeas corpus directed to P. J. Squier, warden. The judge dismissed the petition and petitioner appeals.

¶6Petitioner is serving a sentence imposed upon him by the United States Court for China, and the only reason given for his claimed right to be forthwith released from custody is that he was denied a jury in his trial for murder and that the Constitution of the United States guaranteed him this right.

¶7The United States Court for China is provided for and governed by the Act of June 30, 1906, 34 Stat. 814, 22 U.S.C.A. § 191, et seq. In § 191, 22 U.S.C.A., it is provided in part: “A court is hereby established, to be called the United States Court for China, which shall have exclusive jurisdiction in all cases and judicial proceedings whereof jurisdiction may have been exercised, prior to June 30, 1906, by United States consuls and ministers by law and by virtue of treaties between the United States and China except insofar as the said jurisdiction is qualified by sections 192 [minor civil and criminal matters] and 193 [administration of estates] of this title.” It is specified in § 195, 22 U.S.C.A. that: “Jurisdiction of the United States Court for China shall in all cases be exercised in conformity with the treaties and the laws of the United States now in force in reference to the American consular courts in China Consuls were granted general criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed in certain countries, including China, by the provisions of Revised Statutes § 4084, 22 U.S. C.A. § 142. Under the act of its creation the United States Court for China supplanted the consular courts in China with respect to the majority of cases within the jurisdiction of the latter, including the crime of murder.

¶8The United States Supreme Court in 1890 in Re Ross, 140 U.S. 453, 11 S.Ct. 897, 35 L.Ed. 581, a habeas corpus proceeding, upheld the validity of a judgment for murder by a consular court acting without a jury. The court declared, page 464 of 140 U.S., page 900 of 11 S.Ct.: “By the constitution a government is ordained and established ‘for the United States of Amer-ica,’ and not for countries outside of their *910limits. The guarantees it affords against accusation of capital or infamous crimes, except by indictment or presentmnt by a grand jury, and for an impartial trial by a jury when thus accused, apply only to citizens and others within the United States, or who are brought there for trial for alleged offenses committed elsewhere, and not to residents or temporary sojourners abroad. The constitution can have no operation in another country.”

¶9See Ex parte Bakelite Corporation, 279 U.S. 438, 49 S.Ct. 411, 73 L.Ed. 789, as to authority of Congress to create courts; Husar v. United States, 9 Cir., 26 F.2d 847, for details as to Constitution of Court for China; Biddle v. United States, 9 Cir., 156 F. 759, same; Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138, 24 S.Ct. 808, 49 L.Ed. 128, 1 Ann. Cas. 697, the constitution of United States and territorial government.

¶10Affirmed.

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