United States v. Peters (1795)

United States v. Peters, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 121 (1795), was a United States Supreme Court case determining that the federal district court has no jurisdiction over a foreign privateer where the intended captured ship was not within the jurisdiction of the court. The Supreme Court may prohibit the district court from proceeding in such a matter. In the decision the court held:

The district court has no jurisdiction of a libel for damages, against a privateer, commissioned by a foreign belligerent power, for the capture of an American vessel as prize—the captured vessel not being within the jurisdiction.

The supreme court will grant a writ of prohibition to a district judge, when he is proceeding in a cause of which the district court has no jurisdiction.[1]

United States v. Peters
Argued August 22, 1795
Full case nameThe United States v. Richard Peters, District Judge
Citations3 U.S. 121 (more)
3 Dall. 121; 1 L. Ed. 535; 1795 U.S. LEXIS 330
Holding
The Supreme Court can compel a federal trial judge to halt proceedings in a case which the Supreme Court feels is lacking sufficient evidence to proceed.
Court membership
Chief Justice
John Rutledge
Associate Justices
James Wilson · William Cushing
John Blair Jr. · James Iredell
William Paterson
Case opinion
MajorityRutledge, joined by unanimous

See also

References

  1. Reports of cases ruled and adjudged in the several courts of the United States, and of Pennsylvania: held at the seat of the federal government, Volume 3, Banks Law Pub. Co., 1905, pg. 120
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