Ex parte Webb

This is an original application for a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the arrest and detention of the petitioner, who is held in custody by the United States marshal for the eastern district of Oklahoma, under a capias or bench warrant issued out of the United States district court, upon an indictment of which the following is a copy:

United States of America,

Eastern District of Oklahoma, ss:

In the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District aforesaid, at the March Term thereof, A. D. 1912, at Vinita, Oklahoma.

The grand jurors of the United States, impaneled, sworn, and charged at the term aforesaid of the court aforesaid on their oath present, that Otis Tittle and Charley Webb, and each of them, on the 23d day of January, in the year 1912, in the said division of said district, and within the jurisdiction of said court in Craig county, in the state of Oklahoma, the same then and there being and constituting a portion of the Indian country of the said United States, did at the time and place aforesaid unlawfully, knowingly, wilfully, and feloniously introduce, and attempt to so introduce and carry into the said Indian country, from without the said Indian country, 17 gallons of spirituous, ardent, and intoxicating liquor, to wit: alcohol, which said alcohol was by the said Otis Tittle and Charley Webb and each of them so introduced and carried into that portion of said eastern district of Oklahoma, so being then and there Indian country, as above set forth and described, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States.

Petitioner also applies for a writ of certiorari to review the action of the district court in refusing, on habeas corpus, to discharge him from custody under the bench warrant.

For present purposes it is admitted that petitioner is a white man, not of Indian blood; that the intoxicating liquors described in the indictment were shipped on his order from the city of Joplin, in the state of Missouri, by way of a railway that is a common carrier of interstate shipments, consigned to petitioner at the city of Vinita, in the state of Oklahoma; that the same reached the latter city over said railway line in the course of ordinary transportation at the time of the alleged offense set forth in the indictment, to wit, January 23, 1912; that said intoxicating liquors were delivered by the transportation company to the petitioner within the city of Vinita, and he received them upon a public street and highway, and not upon restricted land, for the purpose and with the intent of carrying and transporting the liquors along the streets and highways to another point within the same city, and that while he was in the act of so receiving the same he was arrested. That the city of Vinita is situate in Craig county, Oklahoma, which county constitutes a part of what was formerly the Cherokee Nation; that all the lands of the Cherokee Nation have been either allotted to individual citizens of the Cherokee Tribe under the terms of the Cherokee Agreement and the several acts of Congress providing for the allotment of said lands, or sold by the United States for the benefit of the citizens of the Cherokee Nation, either as town sites or otherwise, under the authority of the several acts of Congress providing therefor; that the city of Vinita, including the place where the intoxicating liquor was delivered to and received by the petitioner, is a part of the original town site of Vinita, Indian territory; and that the status of the lands and of the enrolled members of the Cherokee Tribe of Indians are such as are fixed by law.

The petitioner contends that the district court is without jurisdiction, because there is no existing law under which the offense alleged against him is punishable in the Federal courts. He claims that he is obliged to resort to this court for relief because the United States circuit court of appeals for the eighth circuit has decided the questions involved, adversely to his contention, in the case of United States Exp. Co. v. Friedman, 191 Fed. 673.

Messrs. Joseph C. Stone, Lawrence Maxwell, James S. Davenport, Thomas H. Owen, and Joseph S. Graydon for petitioner.

Solicitor General Lehmann, Assistant Attorney General Denison, and Mr. Louis G. Bissell for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 668-670 intentionally omitted]

Mr. Justice Pitney, after making the foregoing statement, delivered the opinion of the court: