Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/193



That all actions, suits, process, pleadings and other proceedings, of what nature or kind soever, civil or criminal, which were continued from the supreme court of the United States, which was begun and holden on the first Monday of December last, to the next court to have been holden on the first Monday of June, under the act which passed on the thirteenth day of February, one thousand eight hundred and one, intituled, “,” and all writs, process and proceedings, as aforesaid, which are or may be made returnable to the same June session, shall be continued, returned to, and have day, in the session to be holden by this act, on the first Monday of August next; and such proceedings shall be had thereon, as is herein before provided.

. And be it further enacted, That the districts of the United States (excepting the districts of Maine, Kentucky, and Tennessee) shall be formed into six circuits, in manner following:

The districts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, shall constitute the first circuit;

The districts of Connecticut, New York and Vermont, shall constitute the second circuit;

The districts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania shall constitute the third circuit;

The districts of Maryland and Delaware shall constitute the fourth circuit;

The districts of Virginia and North Carolina shall constitute the fifth circuit; and

The districts of South Carolina and Georgia shall constitute the sixth circuit. The acts of Congress which regulate the original jurisdiction of the circuit courts, are: An act to establish the judicial courts of the United States, ; an act in addition to an act to prohibit the carrying on the slave trade from the United States to any foreign place or country,, sec. 4; an act to vest more effectually in the state courts, and in the district courts of the United States, jurisdiction in the cases therein mentioned, Turner v. The Bank of North America, 4 Dall. 8; 1 Cond. Rep. 205.The inferior courts of the United States, are all of limited jurisdiction, but they are not on that account inferior courts, in the technical sense of those words, whose judgments taken alone, are to be disregarded. If the jurisdiction be not alleged in the proceedings, they are erroneous, but they are not nullities. M‘Cormick et al. v. Sullivant et al., 10 Wheat. 192; 6 Cond. Rep. 71.The justices of the supreme court have by practice and acquiescence under it, for a period of several years, commencing with the organization of the judicial system, sat as circuit judges: this practical exposition is too strong to be shaken or controlled. Stuart v. Laird, 1 Cranch, 299; 1 Cond. Rep. 316.The circuit court has jurisdiction on a bill in equity, filed by the United States, against the debtor of their debtor, they claiming a priority under the fifty-fifth section of the, notwithstanding the local law of the state allows a creditor to proceed against the debtor of his debtor by a peculiar process. The United States v. Howland et al., 4 Wheat. 108; 4 Cond. Rep. 404.

And there shall be holden annually in each district of the said circuits, two courts, which shall be called circuit courts. In the first circuit, the said circuit court shall consist of the justice of the supreme court residing within the said circuit, and the district judge of the district where such court shall be holden: and the sessions of the said court, in the district of New Hampshire, shall commence on the nineteenth day of May, and the second day of November, annually; in the district of Massachusetts, on the first day of June, and the twentieth day of October, annually; in the district of Rhode Island, on the fifteenth day of June, and the fifteenth day of November, annually.

In the second circuit, the said circuit court shall consist of the senior associate justice of the supreme court residing within the fifth circuit, and the district judge of the district, where such court shall be holden: and the sessions of the said court in the district of Connecticut, shall commence on the thirteenth day of April, and the seventeenth day of September, annually; in the district of New York, on the first day of April, and the first day of September, annually; in the district of Vermont, on the first day of May, and the third day of October, annually.