Ex Parte Crouch
112 U.S. 178
SCOTUS
1884
Check Treatment
Mr. Chief Justice Waite

delivered the opinion of the court.

This рetition is denied. The general revenue law of Virginia provides that no persоn shall do business in the State as a “ sample merchant ” until he has obtained a license therefor, on payment of a tax of seventy-five dollars; and that, if he doеs, he shall pay a fine of five hundred dollars for the first' offence, and six hundred dollars fоr each succeeding offence. Acts of Virginia, 1881, ch. 115, §§ 30, 31, pp. 578, 579. The petitioner has been informed against, and is now held in custody for trial by order of the Hustings Court of the City of Richmond, for a violation of this law. According to the statements in the petition рresented to us, the defence of the petitioner, upon the trial of that case, will be a tender by him, before commencing business, to the proper revеnue officer of the State, of the amount of the required license tax, in coupons cut ‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​‌​​​‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌‌‌‌​​‍from State bonds, which the State when it issued the bonds agreed should be receivable in payment of all State dues ; and a refusal of the officer to аccept the tender and give a proper certificate therefor, because by a statute, enacted after the issue of the bonds, the tax-reсeiving officers were prohibited from taking the coupons for this tax. The right of the petitioner to a writ of habeas corpus from this court is put in the petition on thе ground that the petitioner is detained in custody by the State court, in violation of the Constitution of the United States, because the statute which prohibits the officer from accepting the.coupons impairs the obligation of the contraсt of the State to receive them, and is, on that account, inoperative' and void, by reason of the provision of the Constitution which, precludes the Statеs from passing such laws.

It is not claimed that the law which imposes the tax and ■ fixes the penalty for doing business ‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​‌​​​‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌‌‌‌​​‍without its payment is un: constitutional. Neither is it pretended that the Hustings Cоurt has not plenary jurisdiction for the trial of persons charged with a violation of the law. The petitioner is, therefore, in the custody of a State court of сompetent jurisdiction, and held for trial upon an information for violating a criminal statute of the State. He seeks to be discharged by habeas corpus, not because, if guilty of the charge which has been made against him, the court is without jurisdiction to hold him for trial, and to convict and sentence him, but because, as he allеges, he has-a valid defence to the charge, which grows out of a provision in the Constitution of the United States, and, for this reason, he insists he is detained in violation of the Constitution. It is elementary learning that, if a prisoner is in the custody of a State сourt of competent jurisdiction, not illegally asserted, he cannot be taken from that jurisdiction and discharged on habeas corpus issued by a court of the ‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​‌​​​‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌‌‌‌​​‍United States, simply because he is not guilty of the offence for which he is held. All questions which may arise in the orderly course of the proceeding against him are to be determined by the court to whose jurisdiction he has been subjected, and no othеr court is authorized to interfere to prevent it. Here the right of the prisoner tо a discharge depends alone on the sufficiency of his defence to the information under which he is held. Whether his defence is sufficient or not is for the court whiсh tries him to determine. If in this determination errors are committed, they can only be corrected in an appropriate form of proceeding for that рur-' pose. The office of a writ of habeas corpus is neither to corrеct such errors, nor to take' the prisoner away from the court which holds him for triаl, for fear, if he remains, they may be committed. Authorities to this effect in our own reрorts are numerous. Ex parte Watkins, 3 Pet. 202; Ex parte Lange, 18 Wall. 163, 166; Ex parte Parks, 92 U. S. 18, 23; Ex parte Siebold, 100 U.S. 371, 374;” Ex parte Virginia, Id. 339, 343; Ex parte Rowland, 104 U. S. 604, 612; Ex parte Curtis, 106 U. S. 371, 375; Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U. S. 651, 653. Of course, what is here said ‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​‌​​​‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌‌‌‌​​‍has no application to writs of habeas corpus cum causa, issued by the courts of the United States, in aid of their jurisdiction, upon the removal ‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​​‌​‌​‌​‌​​​‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌‌‌‌​​‍of suits or prosecutions from State courts for trial under the authority of an act of Congress.

Denied..