JUDICIARY IN TUE UNITED STATES. In other countries the judicial is more or less complicated with the legislative function; but in the United States the three departments of government, -legislative, executive, and judicial, are scrupulously separ ated from each other. The house of lords, unlike the American senate, was until recently both a legislative and judicial body, and even now sonic of its members arc judges. The lord chancellor, the highest judicial officer of the kingdom, exercises vari ous powers of a political rather than a judicial character; and the master of the rolls is eligible to a scat in parliament. This investiture of the same person with both judi cial and legislative functions has its roots in early Saxon and Norman practices, not yet wholly outgrown. Judges of United States courts can neither serve in congress, till the presidential chair, nor exercise any political power except that of individual voters.
The judicial power of the United States is vested by the constitution in a supreme court and such inferior courts as congress may from time to time establish. The supreme court consists of a chief-justice and nine associate justices, appointed by the president with the consent of the senate, holding office during good behavior, and receiving for their services a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. They have tile privilege (if they have been commissioned not less than 10 years) of resigning at the age of 70, and drawing their salaries through life. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity under this constitution, the laws of the United States, or treaties made or which shall be made under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors, or other public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more states; between a state and a citizen of another state; between citizens of different states; between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states; and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects. In all cases affecting ambassadors or other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as to law and as to fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as congress shall make." (U. S. Constitution,
art. 3, secs. 1, 2.) The supreme court has appellate jurisdiction overcases from the circuit courts where the matter in controversy has a value of over $1000. By the act of 1789, c. 20, sec. 9, the United States is divided into judicial districts, and in each dis trict a district court is established consisting of one judge resident in the district. These courts have both civil and criminal jurisdiction. In their civil jurisdiction they have the powers of a court of admiralty, and also certain extraordinary powers conferred by statute. Their jurisdiction extends over cases of salvage, seizures, prize causes, torts committed on the high seas or within ebb and flow of tide, and maritime contracts. By an act of congress passed in 1845, the district courts were given jurisdiction over con• tracts and torts in regard to vessels plying between ports in different states on the lakes. The extraordinary jurisdiction of the district courts extends over captures made within the waters of the United States; seizures under the U. S. laws of import, navigation, or trade; suits brought by or against a consul or vice-consul; suits brought by an alien for a tort in violation of laws or treaties of the United Slates, and over cases in bankruptcy. The criminal jurisdiction of the district courts is concurrent with that of the circuit courts over non-capital offenses against the United States. These districts compose ten circuits, for each of which a circuit court is established, consisting of one of the justices of the supreme court and a circuit judge or a district judge. The circuit courts have original jurisdiction in civil suits "at common law or in equity. where the matter in diS pute exceeds in value $500, exclusive of costs, and the United States are plaintiffs or petitioners, or an alien is a party, or the suit is between deitizen of the state where the suit is brought and a citizen of another state." They have original jurisdiction in cases arising from violation of the copyright or patent laws. The circuit courts have appellate jurisdiction by writs of error to the district courts or appeals from the latter. Other courts of the United States are the territorial courts established in each territory, and consisting of a chief-justice and two associate justices holding office for four years; and the court of claims, consisting of a chief-justice and four associates, with jurisdiction to pass upon all claims resting upon an act of congress, or a department rule, or contract with the United States.