Magistrate

A public officer belonging to the civil organization of the state, and invested with powers and functions which may be either judicial, legislative or executive. But the term is commonly used in a narrower sense, designating, in England, a person intrusted with the commission of the peace, and, in America, one of the class of inferior judicial officers, such as justices of the peace and police justices. Martin v. State, 32 Ark. 124; Scanlan v. Wright, 13 Pick. (Mass.) 528, 25 Am. Dec. 344; Ex parte White, 15 Nev. 146, 37 Am. Rep. 466; Kurtz v. State, 22 Fla. 44, 1 Am. St. Rep. 173. A magistrate is an officer having power to issue a warrant for the arrest of a person charged with a public offense. Pen. Code Cal. § 807. The word "magistrate" does not necessarily imply an officer exercising any judicial functions, and might very well be held to embrace notaries and commissioners of deeds. Schultz v. Merchants' Ins. Co., 57 Mo. 336.

— Chief magistrate. The highest or principal executive officer of a state (the governor) or of the United States (the president)

— Committing magistrate. An inferior judicial officer who is invested with authority to conduct the preliminary hearing of persons charged with crime, and either to discharge them for lack of sufficient prima facie evidence or to commit them to jail to await trial or (in some jurisdictions) to accept bail and release them thereon.

— Police magistrate. An inferior judicial officer having jurisdiction of minor criminal offenses, breaches of police regulations, and the like ; so called to distinguish them from magistrates who have jurisdiction in civil cases also, as j'ustices of the peace. People v. Curley, 5 Colo. 416; McDermont v. Dinnie, 6 N. D. 278, 69 N. W. 295.

— Stipendiary magistrates. In Great Britain, the magistrates or police judges sitting in the cities and large towns, and appointed by the home secretary, are so calied, as distinguished from the justices of the peace in the counties who have the authority of magistrates.