Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/598

 590 in a court of justice. If the question cannot be brought into a court, then there is no case in law or equity, and no jurisdiction is given by the words of the article. But if, in any controversy depending in a court, the cause should depend on the validity of such a law, that would be a case arising under the constitution, to which the judicial power of the United States would extend. The same observation applies to the other instances, with which the counsel, who opened the cause, has illustrated this argument. Although they show, that there may be violations of the constitution, of which the courts can take no cognizance, they do not show, that an interpretation more restrictive, than the words themselves import, ought to be given to this article. They do not show, that there can be "a case in law or equity," arising under the constitution, to which the judicial power does not extend. We think, then, that, as the constitution originally stood, the appellate jurisdiction of this court, in all cases arising under the constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States, was not arrested by the circumstance, that a state was a party.