Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/325

 BABRETT V. HOPEINS. 81a �tion of his term of enlistment. He avers that at the time of his trial he was a citizen, and not a soldier, and therefore entitled to a trial by jury. �Thomas P. Fenlon, for petitioner. �D. G. Swaim, Judge Advocate U. S. army, for respondent. �McCkary, C. J. 1. Counsel for respondent raises a ques- tion as to the jurisdiction of this court, which must be exam- ined in limine. It is insisted that a circuit court of the United States bas no power to revise the proceedings of a general court-martial, upon habeas corpus or otherwise, and that inasmuch as the jurisdiction of the court-martial over the case of the prisoner did once a,ttach, that court had the right to decide all questions arising in the case, including the question no"w presented, as to its own jurisdiction. The argu- ment of counsel upon this point assumes the soundness of his conclusions upon the main question in controversy. It assumes that the court-martial had jurisdiction to try, con- vict, and sentence the prisoner. If this be a correct proposi- tion, it is indeed an end of the ca.se ; not because this court is -without jurisdiction, but for the reason that, having juris- diction, it ought to sustain the validity of the prisoner's sen- tence. I take it to be very clear that the question of the jurisdiction of a general court-martial may always, upon the application of any party aggrieved by its judgment, be in- quired into by the civil courts. Courts-martial are special tribunals, with jurisdiction limited to a particular class of cases. If such a court exceeds its authority, and undertakes to try and punish a person not within its jurisdiction, or to punish a person within its jurisdiction for an offence not 'within its jurisdiction, its judgment is void, and may be so declared by any court having jurisdiction of the proper parties and of the subject-matter. The decision of such a tribunal, in a case clearly without its jurisdiction, does not possess that apparent validity which will protect the officer who exe- cutes it. "The court and the officers are all trespassers." Wise V. Withers, 3 Cranch, 331. The rule that civil courts may inquire into the jurisdiction of a court-martial in an action by a party aggrieved by its judgment, and give him ��� �