Starklof v. United States
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from an order made in a habeas corpus proceeding remanding the petitioner to custody for imprisonment in the federal jail at Ketchikan, Alaska, to serve a sentence of 150 days imposed by J. A. Peters, United States Commissioner and ex officio justice of the peace in and for Craig Precinct, First Division, Territory of Alaska. The' sole question involved is the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace.
The petitioner was charged in a complaint filed before the justice with the possession of 57 unsealed beaver skins in violation of the Alaska game law (43 Stat. 739, 46 Stat.
The petitioner contends that although a United States Commissioner acting as ex officio justice of the peace has jurisdiction of misdemeanors, that this jurisdiction does not extend to misdemeanors defined by an act of Congress, but that jurisdiction over such offenses is exclusive in the District Court of the United States in the four divisions of the Territory of Alaska. In order to pass upon the question, it will be necessary not only to consider the existing legislation on the subject, but to trace the history of such legislation. By Act of Congress May 17, 1884 (23 Stat. 24) it was provided (section 5) that commissioners should exercise the same powers as justices of the peace under the general laws of Oregon “so far as the same may be applicable in said district, and may not be in conflict with this act or the laws of the United States.” In 1899 Congress enacted the Alaska Criminal Code (Act March 3, 30 Stat. 1253), conferring jurisdiction upon justices of the peace, and by subdivision 3 of section 410, p. 1330, giving jurisdiction to said justices’ court “of any misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in the county jail, or by fine, or by both.” Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, p. 773, § 2519, Comp.L.Alaska, 1933,' p. 1042, § 5677. In 1900 Congress enacted a statute defining jurisdiction of the courts sitting in Alaska (Act June 6, 1900, 31 Stat. 321). These statutes are broad enough in their terms to confer jurisdiction upon the justice of the peace over the misdemeanor in question. It is contended by petitioner, however, that inasmuch as Congress has reserved legislative jurisdiction over the subjects of game and fur-bearing animals and birds of the territory of Alaska that when such reserved jurisdiction is exercised by Congress and when the purpose of the prosecution of a criminal case is to enforce the penalties of such legislation, jurisdiction thereof is confined to the District Court of the United States and does not extend to the Com
We need not inquire as to the correctness of these two decisions, for in any view of the case we are not dealing here with the general law of the United States protecting fur-bearing animals, but with an act of Congress expressly regulating that matter in and for the Territory of Alaska. It is as local in character as though it had been passed by the territorial Legislature had Congress not reserved that power.
In The Tokai Maru, 4 Alaska, 311, Judge Cushman, then United States District Judge for Alaska, sitting in the Third Division, held that a justices’ court had jurisdiction over an offense committed in Alaskan waters in violation of an act of Congress, 34 Stat. 263, prohibiting such fishing in such waters. If the decision of Judge Cushman in that case is correct,, as we think it clearly is, the contention of the appellant cannot be sustained. A companion case to that decided by Judge Cushman in The Tokai Maru, supra, was appealed to this court, 190 F. 450, 457. The validity of the decision of the justice of the peace and of his jurisdiction was involved, but the majority of the court found it unnecessary to pass upon that question. Judge Morrow, who dissented, expressed the opinion that “the justice’s court had no jurisdiction of the case against the officers and crew of the vessel under the act of June 14, 1906.”
The justice of the peace had jurisdiction to enforce the sentence here involved and the order remanding the appellant to custody is correct.
Judgment affirmed.
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