Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/202

 176 OCTOBER TEI.M, regular law offica'. That is what the court below did, as to !nn,ota, when it adjudged that the appearance of the de- fennt Young/n the tate court, as the Attorney General of. !inn,ota, representing his State as its chief law officer, wm a contempt of the authority of the Federal court, punishable by fine and. imprisonment. Too little comeq-Jce has been attached to the fact that the courts of the States are under an obligation equally strong with that rezti upon the courts of the Union to rospect and enforce the provisions of the Federal Constitution as the Supreme Law of the l,.nd and to guard rights secured or-guaranteed by that instrument. We must asune---a decent respect for the. Statos requires us to assume--that the state courts will enforce every right secured by the Constitution. If they fail to-do so, the party comp)Aning has a clear remedy for the protection of'his rights; for, he can come by writ of error, in an Orderly, judicial way, from the highest court of the State to this tribunal for redress in respect of every right granted or secured by that instru- ment and denied by the state court. The state courts, it should be remembered,. have jurisdiction concurrent with the courts of the United States of all suits of a civil nature, at common law or equity involving a prescribed amount, arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States. 25 Stat. 434. And this court. IU2 said: "A state court of original j'urisdic- tion, having the parties before it, may .consistently with exist- ing Federal legislktion determine cases at law or in equity ' arising under the Constitution or.laws of the Unitei States 0r involving right dependent upon such Comtitttion or laws. Upon the state courts, equally with the courts of the Union, rests the obligation to guard, enf0rce,-and protect every right granted 'or secured by the Constitution of 'the United States and the laws made in pursuance thereof, whenever those rights are involved in any suit or.proceeding before them; for the judges .of the state courts are required to take an oath  sup- port that Constitution, and'they are ound by it, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and11 treaties

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