Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/914

900 PEDEBAIi HEPOBTEE. �" The jurisdiction vested in the courts of the United States, in the rases and proceedings hereinafter mentioned, shall be exclusive of the courts of the several States : First. Of all crimes and offences cognizable under the author- ity of the United States." �This provision was net in the statutes of the United States any- where before. It was framed ex industria, and placed there for some purpose. It is not merely the provision of the judiciary act relating to the juriadiction of the circuit courts brought forward and placed here, as well as in the chapter relating to those courts, to ex- press the same thing again in another connection; but it is a different thing. That provision made the jurisdiction of the circuit courts exclusive, of all other courts, federal as well as state, exeept as other- ■wise provided, This applies to all the courts of the United States, and expressly excludes, , and seems to be made expressly to ex- clude, the jurisdiction of the courts of the states. Both provis- ions are necessary to place the jurisdiction in these cases where it is reposed, among the federal coui-ts, and exclude that of the state courts, and the latterwould be unnecessary if that of the state courts was not to be excluded. �The language of the section quoted from the title on "Crimes" does not save the jurisdiction of tue courts of the states over the offences made punishable by that title, as section 26 of the act of 1825 savcd it o^'er offences made punishable by that act. It says nothing of offences, as sueh, to express or specify its application. There are many offences made punishable by that title, — some of them such as could never be offences against the laws of any of the states; some, such as the obstructing the executive officers in the performance of their duties, and the service of the processes of the courts of the United States, where the same act might oonstitute one offence against the laws of the United States, and another different offence against the laws of the states. This section of the title is general, and might be applicable to all these if taken in its broadest sense. It might be, or be claimed to be, that making any act punishable under the laws of congress would prevent the states from punishing a dif- ferent offence involved in the same act. An assault upon a marshal, to obstruet his service of process, would be punishable under this title for the obstruction, but not assault. The assault might be punish- able under the state laws, but not the obstruction, The title makes certain, offences against the laws of the United States punishable. This section seems to mean that making them so punishable shall not prevent the states from taking hold of any offences which ��� �