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A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States · John Bouvier · 1839
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States
is an accusation or complaint made in writing to a court of competent jurisdiction, charging some person with a specific violation of some public law. It differs in nothing from an indictment in its form and substance, except that it is filed at the discretion of the proper law officer of the government, ez afficto, without the intervention or approval of a grand jury.
4 Bl. Com. 308, 9.
Informations have for their object either to punish a crime or misdemeanor, and these have; perhaps, never been resorted to in the United States; or to recover penalties or forfeitures, which are quite common.
Vide Blake’s Ch. 49; 14 Vin. Ab. 407; 3.Story Const. § 1780; 3 Bl. Com. 261.