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If the sentence of the court martial in such case need to be approved by any one, the approval by the president of the United States is sufficient.

OGDEN v. SAUNDERS.

624

A bankrupt law, which applies to contracts made after its passage, does not impair the obligation of those contracts, -(per Justices Washington, Johnson, Trimble, and Thompson; Marshall, Duvall, and Story dissenting.) A discharge under a state bankrupt law is incompetent to discharge a debt due a citizen of another state.

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An act of the legislature of Rhode Island, reviving, in a particular case, an old insolvent law, and discharging a debtor from prison, was constitutional and valid.

SATTERLEE v. MATTHEWSON.

686

The constitution of the United States does not forbid the legislature of a state to exercise judicial functions. The supreme court of Pennsylvania had decided, that, under the title called "a Connecticut title," the relation of landlord and tenant could not exist. Immediately after this decision, the legislature of Pennsylvania passed a law enacting that the relation of landlord and tenant should exist under "a Connecticut title," as under any other. This law was not repugnant to the constitution of the United States.

MARSHALL'S CONSTITUTIONAL OPINIONS.

CONSTITUTIONAL OPINIONS

OF

CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL.

JOHN MARSHALL received the appointment of chief justice of the United States on the 31st of January, 1801; he was appointed to that office by President Adams, with the unanimous approval of the senate. He took his seat on the bench at the ensuing term of the supreme court; but no important case, involving a constitutional question, came before him until the February term of 1803. The first of that nature was the case of

WILLIAM MARBURY v. JAMES MADISON.

FEBRUARY TERM, 1803.

[1 Cranch's Reports, 137 – 180.]

At the December

THE facts of this case were as follows: term of the supreme court, 1801, William Marbury, by his counsel, moved the court for a rule to James Madison, secretary of state of the United States, calling upon him to show cause why a mandamus* should not issue, commanding him to

* A rule to show cause why a mandamus shall not issue is, in other words, a notice from the court calling upon the person to whom it is sent to make known to the court any reason, if he have any, why he should not be positively required to do some desired thing. The writ is called a mandamus, from its first word, meaning, we command. 1

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