Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 32.djvu/740

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704
HARVARD LAW REVIEW
704

704 HARVARD LAW REVIEW in the Pacific Railroad Removal cases ^ it was held, on the authority of the case of the United States Bank, that corporations of the United States are entitled to remove suits brought against them in the state courts under the Removal of Causes Act of March 3, 1875,^ on the ground that such- suits are "suits arising under the laws of the United States," and this ruling has been followed and applied in a long line of cases, save when the particular suit was withdrawn or excluded from the federal jurisdiction by some specific enactment, as in the case of national banks or railroads/* Similar statutes would have the same effect upon suits by or against other corporations incorporated by Congress. Provision might be made that suits should be brought against them in the state courts, or that such suits should not be removed merely because the corporation was created by act of Congress. Corporations created by Congress are not, unless by statute, as in the case of the national banks, citizens for jurisdictional purposes of the state wherein they reside, nor citizens of the United States under the Fourteenth Amendment."*^ Within the scope of the powers conferred upon Congress, the powers conferred upon the corporations created by Congress are protected by the laws and constitution of the United States, and these are paramount and must prevail.^ "Within the scope of its powers, as enumerated and defined, it (the government of the United States) is supreme and above the States; but beyond, it has no existence." *^ There is a division of sovereignty within the territory of the several states which is also the territory of the United States. The powers given by Congress to the corporations created by it are the powers which emanate from the sovereignty of the United States and not from that of the states.'*^ It is not merely a question of filing the certificate of incorporation in Washington or Boston. « 115 U. S. I (1885). « 18 Stat, at L. 470 (1875).

    • Bankers' Trust Co. v. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co., 241 U. S. 295 (1916). 22 Stat.

AT L. 162 (1882), chap. 290, § 4; 38 Stat, at L. 804 (1915), chap. 22, § 5. « Bankers' Trust Co. v. Texas & Pacific Ry. Co., 241 U. S. 295 (1916). « M'Culloch V. Maryland, 4 Wheat. (U. S.) 316 (1819); Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. (U. S.) 264, 414 (1821); Osbom V. Bank of the United States, 9 Wheat. (U. S.) 738. In re, Quarles and Butler, 158 U. S. 532, 536 (1895).

  • United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 550 (1875). See also Brennan v.

Titusville, 153 U. S. 289 (1894).- ^ I Thompson on Corporations, § 675 (1895 ed.). I