35 Ga. 124 | Ga. | 1866
This laxity we are determined to arrest.
The bill of exceptions must contain the assignments of error, plainly and distinctly set forth. Nothing, it appears to us, can be easier than for counsel bringing up a case for review, to state the ruling or decision of the Judge, and wherein the error exists.
It will be our duty, upon motion, to dismiss, with costs, hereafter, such imperfect bills of exceptions ; and, it is to be hoped, that no weak indulgence will lead us to tolerate such gross violations of positive rule.
But we have had to encounter other embarrassments ; the case was not argued, nor were we furnished with briefs of the points made, and of the authorities to support them.
Under such circumstances, without the assistance to which we were entitled, we have had to grope our way through the record upon a voyage of discovery.
Thus situated, if we shall have failed to have comprehended the case, the causes which have led to such a result have been indicated.
It is a rule of the highest Court in the United States, and' which has been repeatedly and most emphatically approved and followed by this Court, never to allow the constitutionality of any law or Ordinance .to be drawn into question and decided upon, unless such decision should be found to be absolutely necessary to a disposition of the case.
We would be pleased to see our brethren of the Circuit Bench carefully observing the rule stated, which we deem to be eminently wise, productive of harmony in the co-ordinate departments of government, and which was first announced by the most illustrious Judge America has yet produced — Chief Justice John Marshall.
Let the judgment below be made to conform to this opinion.