US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

MOORE V. MISSISSIPPI, 88 U. S. 636 (1874)

Subscribe to Cases that cite 88 U. S. 636

U.S. Supreme Court

Moore v. Mississippi, 88 U.S. 21 Wall. 636 636 (1874)

Moore v. Mississippi

88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 636

Syllabus

1. Where a case is brought here from the highest court of the state under the assumption that it is within section 709 of the Revised Statutes, if the record shows upon its face that a federal question was not necessarily involved, and does not show that one was raised, this Court will not go outside of it -- to the opinion or elsewhere -- to ascertain whether one was in fact decided.

2. Hence, when a record from such a court disclosed the fact that a person had been indicted on an indictment which contained certain counts charging him with selling lottery tickets and certain others charging him with keeping a gaming table, both in violation of statute, and that he pleaded in bar to the whole indictment a statute of earlier date which went to justify his issuing of the lottery tickets but not to justify his keeping of a gaming table, and the plea, on demurrer, was held bad, and on his then pleading not guilty, he was found guilty, generally, and a proper judgment entered against him; this Court held -- there having been no bill of exception taken at the trial and no error specifically stated in the record -- that it would not look out of the record -- into the opinion of the court (made part of the transcript) or elsewhere -- to see that the defendant had set up that the statute under which he was indicted and convicted violated the obligation, of a contract made by the prior one, which he had set up in bar to the whole indictment. The record showing that the plea had answered but part of the indictment, the judgment had a proper base for it, and no other matter being properly alleged for error it was rightly to be affirmed.

The present Constitution of Mississippi, ratified in 1869, ordains,

"That the legislature shall not authorize any lottery, nor shall any lottery heretofore authorized be permitted to be drawn or tickets therein to be sold."

And to give effect to this provision, an act of the legislature of the state, passed in 1870, enacted,

"That every lottery and gift enterprise, of whatever name or description, regardless of the authority of law heretofore creating the same, be, and the same is hereby prohibited, and declared a nuisance and misdemeanor, against the public policy of the state, and that whoever is concerned . . . in any way or manner whatsoever therein . . . shall upon conviction be fined,"

&c. chanrobles.com-red

Page 88 U. S. 637

This statute being on the statute book, Moore was indicted in one of the circuit courts of the state. The indictment charged him in five counts with selling lottery tickets and in two with keeping a gaming table. He pleaded in bar to the whole indictment

"that in issuing the ticket or certificate mentioned and specified in the indictment, he was acting as the agent of the Mississippi Agricultural, Educational, and Manufacturing Aid Society, a body politic and corporate, which was duly incorporated by an act of the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, approved February 16, 1867, and that prior to the adoption of the present Constitution of the state, said Mississippi Agricultural, Educational, and Manufacturing Aid Society fully complied with all the provisions of said act of incorporation."

The charge of issuing tickets or certificates was made, as already said, only in five out of the seven counts in the indictment. The state demurred to the plea because 1, it showed no valid bar to the prosecution and 2, it amounted to the general issue, and nothing more. The court sustained the demurrer.

Moore then pleaded not guilty and went to trial. The jury returned a verdict of guilty generally, and the proper judgment was entered thereon. No bill of exceptions was taken at the trial, and no error was specifically stated on the record.

The case was taken to the supreme court of the state by writ of error, and the judgment of the court below was there affirmed. The record proper did not show what errors were assigned in the Supreme Court. Appended to the transcript of the record, or as a part of it, was the opinion of the supreme court of the state preceding the judgment now brought here on error.

The present writ of error was prosecuted under section 709 of the Revised Statutes, [Footnote 1] to obtain a reexamination of the case. chanrobles.com-red

Page 88 U. S. 638



























chanrobles.com



ChanRobles Legal Resources:

ChanRobles On-Line Bar Review

ChanRobles Internet Bar Review : www.chanroblesbar.com

ChanRobles MCLE On-line

ChanRobles Lawnet Inc. - ChanRobles MCLE On-line : www.chanroblesmcleonline.com