Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/914

 902 FEDERAL REPORTER. �J. ' ■ ■ �congress lias exercised tMs power in the passage pf the aet of Pebmary 5, 1867, (14 St. 385; Eev. St. § 753,) which authorizes the national courts to inquire, by habeas corpus into the cause of detention of any one who "is in custody," whether under the authority of the state or otherwise, "in violation of the constitution, or a law or treaty of the United States," and to discharge him therefrom in case he is held in contravention thereof. If, then, the petitioner is restrained of his liberty or adjudged to lose his life by the aet or agency of the state, without due process of law, he is so restrained or adjudged in violation of the constitution of the United States, and therefore this court has power, and it is its duty, to inter- fere and relieve him from such restraint or adjudication. �Argument eannot make the case plainer than the mere state- ment of it. The conclusion necessarily foUows from the pro- mise. The state can only aet through individuals, and when it does so their acts are the acts of the state. As was said by Mr. Justice Strong, in delivering the opinion of the court in Ex parte Coles, at the present term of the supreme court : "We have said that the prohibitions of the fourteenth amend- ment are addressed to the states. They are : • No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of eitizens of the United States ; nor shall any Btate deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its juris- diction the equal protection of the laws.' They have reference to the actions of the political body denominated a state, by whatever instruments or in whatever modes that action may be taken. A state acts by its legislature, its executive, or its judicial authorities. It can aet in no other way. The con- stitutional provision, therefore, must mean that no agency of the state, or of the offieers or agents by whom its powers are exercised, shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Whoever by virtue of public position under a state government deprives another of prop- erty, life, or liberty, without due process of law, or denies or takes away the equal protection of the laws, violates the con- stitutional inhibition, and as he acts in the name and for the ����