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Jacob Resler v. James Shehee U.S. 110 (1801)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0053 and id is 1 raw text is: SUPREME COURT U. S. U. STATIS But yet where a treaty is the law of the land, and as fuch T/. affe&s the rights of parties litigating in court, that treaty SCHoONER as much binds thofe rights andis as much to be regarded PG by the court as an a6t of congress; and although reftoration nmly be an executive, when viewed as a fubftantive, a& independent of, and unconneded with, 6ther circunm- ftances, yet to condemn a veffel, the reftoration of which is direded by a law of the land, would be a dirc&k infrac- tion of that law, and of confequence, improper. It is in the general true that the province of an appel. late court is only to enquire whether a judgment when rendered was erroneous or not. But if fubfequent to the judgient and before the decifion of the appellate court, a law intervenes and pofitively changes the rule which go-. verns, the law muff e obeyed, or its obligation denied. If the law be conflitutional, and of,that no doubt in the prefcnt cafe has been 'expreflkd, I know of no court which'can cont~ft its obligation. It is true that in mere private cafes between individuals, a court will and ought to firuggle hard againft a conftru&ion which will, by a retrofpe&ive operation, affe& the rights of parties, but in great national concerns where individual rights, acquired by War, are facrificed for national purpofes, the contraa, making the facrifice, ought always to receive a conftru&ion conforming to its manifeft import; and if the nation has given up the vefted rights of its citizens, it is not for the court, but for the government, to confider whether it be a cafe proper for compenfation. In fuch a cafe the court muft decide according to exifling laws, and if it be necef- fary to fet afide a judgment, rightful when rendered, but which cannot be aftiiied but in violation of law, the judg- ment muff be fet afide. JACOB RESLER v. JAMES SHEHEE. RSLER 'V). .fe tTiswas a writ of error upon a judgment or the After the firfl: was term next fol.. circuit. court of the diftri& of Columbia, fitting at Aiex- lowing an otfice andria, in an acion for a malicious profecution brought judgment, in Virginia, it i, by Shehee v. Refler, originally in the court of huffings a mater of for the town of Alexandria, and transferred by aa of

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