256 F. 651 | 2d Cir. | 1919
By the Code of Law of the District of Columbia, §§ 869a, 869b, enacted by Congress March 1, 1909 (35 Stat. 670, c. 233), it is a criminal offense to keep a “bucket shop” within the District. No statute, applicable solely to the District creates or defines the offense of conspiracy. The relators appellants may (for purpose of argument) be assumed never at any time to have been within said District.
The Criminal Code of the United States (Act March 4, 1909, c. 321, 35 Stat. 1088), does create and define the crime of conspiracy in its section 37 (Comp. St. § 10201), and therein declares two or more persons guilty of the crime, if they “conspire * * * to commit any offense against the United States.”
The accused were arrested in New York on warrants charging a violation of Criminal Code, § 37, and held under section 1014, Revised Statutes (Comp. St. § 1674), for removal to the District of Columbia, whereupon they applied for these writs, because (1) they had never been in the District, (2) the indictment charged no crime against the United States, and (3) therefore section 1014 Revised Statutes was not applicable. These propositions evince more boldness than merit.
The District is and always has been a part of the United States (Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U. S. 260, 21 Sup. Ct. 770, 45 L. Ed. 1088), under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress (Shoemaker v. United States, 147 U. S. 298, 13 Sup. Ct. 361, 37 L. Ed. 170). Any and every criminal offense is a violation of sovereignty, and there is no other sovereign in or over the District, except the United States.
The Criminal Code is a general act, and is therefore coextensive with federal jurisdiction, unless otherwise specifically directed. It is therefore plainly applicable to the District, as was assumed in the Hyde Case, supra. And as to the preceding statute — Revised Statutes, § 5440 (Comp. St. § 10201) — see Crawford v. United States, 212 U. S. 183, 29 Sup. Ct. 260, 53 L. Ed. 465, 15 Ann. Cas. 392.
Orders affirmed.