(Download) "Caldwell v. Texas" by Supreme Court of the United States " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Caldwell v. Texas
- Author : Supreme Court of the United States
- Release Date : January 12, 1891
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 51 KB
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MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER, after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court. By the Fourteenth Amendment the powers of the States in dealing with crime within their borders are not limited, but no State can deprive particular persons or classes of persons of equal and impartial justice under the law. 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 requisition is satisfied. 2 Kent Comm. 13. And due process is so secured 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. Bank of Columbia v. Okely, 4 Wheat. 235, 244. The power of the State must be exerted within the limits of those principles, and its exertion cannot be sustained when special, partial and arbitrary. Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516, 535. No question of repugnancy to the Federal Constitution can be fairly said to arise when the inquiry of the State courts is directed to the sufficiency of an indictment in the ordinary administration of criminal law, and the statutes authorizing the form of indictment pursued are not obviously violative of the fundamental principles above adverted to.