LEEPER
v.
TEXAS

U.S. | 1891-03-30
No. 1239
139 U.S. 462 Supreme Court of the United States (1891) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 35 L. Ed. 225 · 11 S. Ct. 577 · 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2397 · SCDB 1890-188
Cited by 92 cases

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Synopsis

A defendant convicted under Texas criminal laws sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming the state proceedings violated rights secured by the federal Constitution. The Court affirmed the conviction, holding that the validity of state criminal statutes and the proper administration of state criminal law are not federal questions subject to Supreme Court review, and that the defendant's state court proceedings satisfied due process requirements under the Fourteenth Amendment.

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Opinion of the Court
Mr. Chief Justice Fuller,

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller,

after stating'the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

It must be regarded as settled that a petition for a writ of error forms no part of the record upon which action here is taken; Manning v. French, 133 U. S. 186; Clark v. Pennsylvania, 128 U. S. 395; Warfield v. Chaffe, 91 U. S. 690; Butler v. Gage, 138 U. S. 52: That to give this court jurisdiction to review the judgment of a state court under section 709 of the Revised Statutes, because of the denial by the state court of any right, title, privilege or immunity claimed under the Constitution, or any treaty or statute of the United States, it must appear on the record that such title, right, privilege or immunity was specially set up or claimed at the proper time and in the proper way; Spies v. Illinois, 123 U. S. 131, 181; Baldwin v. Kansas, 129 U. S. 52; Chappell v. Bradshaw, 128 U. S. 132: That whether statutes of a legislature of a State have been duly enacted in accordance with the requirements of the constitution of such State, is not a federal question, and the decision of state courts as to what are the laws of the State is binding upon the courts of the United States; South Ottawa v. Perkins, 94 U. S. 260, 268; Post v. Supervisors, 105 U. S. 667; Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U. S. 425, 440; Railroad Co. v. Georgia, 98 U. S. 359, 366; Baldwin v. Kansas, 129 U. S. 52, 57: That by the Fourteenth Amendment the powers of States in dealing with crime within their borders are not limited, except that no State can deprive particular persons,, or classes of persons, of equal and impartial justice under the law; that law in its regular course of administration through courts of justice is due process, and when secured by the law of the State the constitutional requirement is satisfied; and that due process is so secui’ed by laws operating on all alike, and not subjecting the individual to the arbitrary exercise of the powers of government unrestrained by the established principles of private right and distributive justice. Hurtado v. California, 110 U. S. 516, 535, and cases cited.

In view of these repe'atedly adjudicated propositions, we do not care to discuss at length the points urged by plaintiff in error. Our jurisdiction in this class of cases is properly invoked by writ of error, not by appeal. The validity of the enactment of the Texas codes is not open to inquiry. In re Duncan, ante, 449.

The sufficiency of the indictment, the degree of the offence charged, the admissibility of the testimony objected to, and the alleged disqualification of the juror because he was not a freeholder, were all matters with the disposition of which, as exhibited by this record, we have nothing to do.

We find nothing special, partial or arbitrary or in violation of fundamental principles in the criminal laws of the State of Texas, involved, and we perceive no ground for holding that the proceedings complained of, which were had in the ordinary administration of those laws, amounted to a denial by the State of due process of law to these parties, or of some right secured to them by the Constitution of the United States. In re Kemmler, 136 U. S. 436, 449; Caldwell v. Texas, 137 U. S. 692. Although no right, title, privilege or immunity was specially set up or claimed at the proper time and in the proper way, and no Federal question was passed upon by the state couits or raised, except by the general averment in the petition for rehearing that the indictment was so defective that it, or the statute which authorized it, contravened the Constitution, yet, as full argument was permitted at the bar, upon the assumption that the writ of error was providently issued,- we will instead of dismissing the writ, affirm the judgment.

Judgment affirmed.

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Cited By (53 total)

  • Williams v. Keyes, 135 Fla. 769 (Fla. 1938)
    …stion of [*814] compliance with the State Constitution of Statutes or whether State law violates the State Constitution does not involve a federal question. Powell v. Brunswick County, 150 U. S. 433, 14 Sup. Ct. 166, 37 L. Ed. 1134; Leeper v. Texas, 139 U. S. 462, 11 Sup. Ct. 577, 55 L. Ed. 225; Missouri, ex rel., v. Harris, 144 U. S. 210, 12 Sup. Ct. 838, 36 L. Ed. 407. In order to give the Supreme Court of the United States jurisdiction to review a judgment of the highest court of a State, the validity of…
  • Flint v. Stone Tracy Co., 220 U.S. 107 (U.S. 1911)
  • McGAUTHA v. California, 402 U.S. 183 (U.S. 1971)
    …mposing “a different punishment for the same offence . . . under particular circumstances,” Moore v. Missouri, 159 U. S. 673, 678 (1895), it does command that punishment be “dealt out to all alike who are similarly situated.” Ibid.; Leeper v. Texas, 139 U. S. 462, 468 (1891); Missouri v. Lewis, 101 U. S. 22, 31 (1880). Even granting the State the fullest conceivable room for judgment as to what are and are not “particular circumstances” justifying different treatment, this means at the least that the State…

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