services such fees as shall be taxed therefor in the respective courts before which the suits or prosecutions shall be. Attorney General of the U.S. And there shall also be appointed a meet person, learned in the law, to act as attorney-general for the United States, who shall be sworn or affirmed to a faithful execution of his office; Duties. whose duty it shall be to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required Act of May 29, 1830, ch. 153. by the President of the United States, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments, touching any matters that may concern their departments, and shall receive such compensation Compensation. for his services as shall by law be provided.[1]
Approved, September 24, 1789.
Statute Ⅰ.Sept. 29, 1789.
Chap. XXI.—An Act to regulate Processes in the Courts of the United States.
Act of May 26, 1790. Obsolete.
Act of February 18, 1791. Repealed.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all writs and processes issuing from a supreme or circuit court shall bear test
Writs to bear test of the Chief Justice.
of the chief justice of the supreme court, and if from a district court, shall bear test of the judge of such court, and shall be under the seal
To be under the seal of the Court from which they issue.
Act of May 8, 1792.
Act of May 19, 1828.
of the court from whence they issue; and signed by the clerk thereof. The seals of the supreme and circuit courts to be provided by the supreme court, and of the district courts, by the respective judges of the same.
- ↑ The acts relating to the compensation of the Attorney General of the United States are: Act of March 2, 1797; act of March 2, 1799, chap. 38; act of February 20, 1804, chap. 12; act of February 20, 1819, chap. 27; act of May 29, 1830, chap. 153, sec. 10.
- ↑ The 34th section of the judiciary act of 1789, authorizes the courts of the United States to issue writs of execution as well as other writs.
Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1; 6 Cond. Rep. 1.
Whenever, by the state laws in force in 1789, a capias might issue from a state court, the acts of 1789 and 1792, extending in terms to that species of writ, must be understood to have adopted its use permanently in the federal courts. Bank of the United States v. January, 10 Wheat. 66—in note.
The process act of 1792, chap. 36, is the law which regulates executions issuing from the courts of the United States, and it adopts the practice of the supreme courts of the States existing in 1789, as the rule for governing proceedings on such executions, subject to such alterations as the Supreme Court of the United States may make; but not subject to the alterations which have since taken place in the State laws and practice. Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1; 6 Cond. Rep. 1.
At an early period after the organization of the federal courts, the rules of practice in the State courts, which were similar to the English practice, were adopted by the Judges of the Circuit Court. A subsequent change in the practice of the State courts will not authorize a departure from the rules first adopted in the Circuit Court. 1 Peters’ C. C. R. 1.
Whenever by the laws of the United States a defendant may be arrested, the process of arrest employed in the State may be adopted. Burr’s trial, 431.
The process act of 1828 was passed shortly after the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Wayman v. Southard, and the Bank of the United States v. Halstead, and was intended as a legislative sanction of the opinions of the court in those cases. The power given to the courts of the United States to make rules and regulations on final process, so as to conform the same to the laws of the States on the same subject, extends to future legislation; and as well to the modes of proceeding on executions as to the forms of writs. Ross and King v. Duval et al., 13 Peters, 45.
The first judiciary act of 1789, chap. 20, does not contemplate compulsive process against any person, in any district, unless he be an inhabitant of, or found within the same district at the time of serving the writ. Picquet v. Swann, 5 Mason’s C. C. R. 35.
Congress have by the constitution, exclusive authority to regulate proceedings in the courts of the United States, and the States have no authority to control those proceedings, except so far as the State process sets are adopted by Congress, or by the courts of the United States under the authority of Congress. Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1; 6 Cond. Rep. 1.
The laws of the United States authorize the courts of the United States so to alter the form of process of execution used in the Supreme Court of the United States in 1789, as to subject to executions
