New Jersey v. New York (31 U.S. 323)/Opinion of the Court

The court have had the return made in this case under consideration. It considers the demurrer filed in this case by the attorney-general of New York, as being an appearance for the state, he being a practitioner in this court; and therefore, that the demurrer is regularly filed. If the attorney general did not so mean it, it is not a paper which can be considered as in the cause, or be placed on the files of the court. We say this now, that the attorney-general may have due notice, if he did not intend to enter any appearance for the state; it being otherwise a paper not to be received.

The demurrer, then, being admitted as containing an appearance by the state, the court is of opinion, that it amounts to a compliance with the order at the last term. In that order, the word 'answer,' is not used in a technical sense, as an answer to the charges in the bill under oath; but an answer, in a more general sense, to the bill. A demurrer is an answer in law to the bill, though not in a technical sense an answer according to the common language of practice.

The court, therefore, direct the demurrer to be set down for argument, on the first Monday of March of this term, according to the motion of the plaintiffs.