of the governor to approve and sign a bill presented to him within ten days previous to the adjournment of the legislature does not cease with the adjournment, but he may sign the bill after the adjournment, and it thereupon becomes a law.70 Unless the constitution so provides, it is not incumbent upon the governor to return to either house of the legislature any bill or act after it has received his approval and signature; if he reports to either house his approval of the bill, it is a matter of courtesy only. Subsequent approval of an act by the governor does not dispense with requisites which must exist in order to confer authority on the legislature to pass the act.72

71

If the governor does not approve the bill, he is to return it, with his objections, to the house in which it originated. This return is usually and properly made by an executive messenger. If the governor, having announced his intention of vetoing a bill, delivers it to the member who introduced it, on his representation that it was recalled by the house for reconsideration, and the member hands it to private interested parties, it does not become a law under the constitutional provision that if the governor shall not return a bill within ten days it shall be a law in like manner as if he had signed it.73 If the constitution gives the governor power merely to return the bill with his objections (that is, to veto the bill as a bill), he must treat it as a whole. He cannot disapprove of one item in an appropriation bill and approve all the rest. If he attempts to do this, the bill will be considered as approved as a whole and every part of it will become law.74 When the veto power is given to the governor, it is checked by a provision that bills vetoed by him may be passed over his veto by a prescribed majority of the members of both houses. It is held that a bill after being so passed over the veto, need not be again signed by the presiding officers of the two houses; such passage makes it ipso facto a law.75

70 People v. Bowen, 21 N. Y. 517; Solomon v. Commissioners, 41 Ga. 157; State v. Board of Sup'rs of Coahoma County, 64 Miss. 358, 1 So. 501. Compare Hardee v. Gibbs, 50 Miss. 802; Fowler v. Peirce, 2 Cal. 165.

71 State v. Whisner, 35 Kan. 271, 10 P. 852.

72 Manor Casino v. State (Tex. Civ. App.) 34 S. W. 769.

73 McKenzie v. Moore, 92 Ky. 216, 17 S. W. 483, 14 L. R. A. 251.

74 Porter v. Hughes, 4 Ariz. 1, 32 P. 165. But in some states, the constitution provides that the governor may object to one or more items of an appropriation bill and approve the rest. See Pickle v. McCall, 86 Tex. 212, 24 S. W. 265; May v. Topping, 65 W. Va. 656, 64 S. E. 848.

75 City of Evansville v. State, 118 Ind. 426, 21 N. E. 267, 4 L. R. A. 93.

State Governors under the Federal Constitution

The constitutional functions of the governor of a state are regulated to some extent by the Constitution of the United States, and chiefly in relation to matters concerning the intercourse of the states with each other, and to the representation of the state in Congress. Thus, by the fourth article of the Constitution, a person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime. Again, the United States is bound to protect each state against domestic violence, when application for federal aid is made by the legislature. But when the legislature cannot be convened, the executive of the state may call for such assistance. All executive officers of the several states are required to be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States. When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in congress, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. And if vacancies happen in the senate, by resignation or otherwise, the governor is to issue writs of election to fill such vacancies, but the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

147. The judicial power of each state is vested in a system of courts, comprising, generally, four classes

(a) A court of last resort, possessing supreme appellate jurisdic

tion.

(b) A number of courts of equal and co-ordinate authority, each within its territorial limits, possessing general original jurisdiction, civil and criminal.

(c) Inferior courts, held by justices of the peace or police magistrates, possessing jurisdiction of minor civil causes and petty criminal offenses.

(d) A variety of courts for dealing with special classes of cases, such as probate or surrogates' courts, municipal courts, juvenile courts, and traffic courts.

The system of courts, in respect to its details, varies very greatly in the different states, but in its main features there is a marked similarity of plan. The general design is to establish one court of last resort, which shall have final appellate jurisdiction over all the rest, and a series of inferior courts, territorially distributed throughout the state, possessing general original jurisdiction, civil and criminal, together with certain courts of greatly restricted powers, and usually proceeding without a jury, which are intended for the trial and determination of minor causes. The court of last resort is sometimes called the "supreme" court, sometimes the "court of appeals,' sometimes the "court of errors and appeals," and there are some other variations of these names. This court, as a rule, is vested with very narrow original jurisdiction, but with the ultimate appellate jurisdic

tion, both in civil and criminal causes. It also has power to issue various prerogative writs, or other extraordinary remedies, such as the writs of habeas corpus, certiorari, mandamus, injunction, quo warranto, and writs of error.

Intermediate courts, between the court of last resort and the courts of general original jurisdiction, have been created in several states, in recent times, to relieve the courts of final appeal from a portion of the burden of their constantly increasing labors. These courts are generally invested with appellate jurisdiction only, and that jurisdiction is limited to cases not involving more than a certain amount in money, or not involving capital punishment, or not involving questions relating to the constitutionality of statutes, or it may be otherwise restricted, the statutory provisions in this respect not being uniform. Of this character are the "appellate courts" or "courts of appeal" in Illinois, Missouri, California, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, and some other states, the "appellate division of the supreme court" in New York, and the "superior court" of Pennsylvania.

High original jurisdiction is vested in a series of courts, which are called "superior courts," "circuit courts," "district courts," "general terms of the supreme court," or "courts of common pleas." These courts possess general original jurisdiction of all suits, actions, and judicial proceedings. In some states, they are also vested with jurisdiction in equity; in others, there is a separate system of chancery courts. Criminal jurisdiction is vested also in these courts, though in some states they are designated by other names when sitting on the criminal side, such as courts of "oyer and terminer," courts of "quarter sessions," or courts of "general jail delivery." Courts of this class also possess appellate jurisdiction, in some states, from the inferior courts, such as justices of the peace, probate courts, or municipal courts.

Another series of courts is vested with the jurisdiction of the probate of wills, the granting of letters testamentary, and the settlement of the estates of decedents, and generally of the appointment of guardians for minors and the settlement of their accounts. These courts are variously called "probate courts," "surrogates' courts," "orphans' courts," or "courts of ordinary."

Justices of the peace are found in all the states, and they are privileged to hold courts for the determination of civil cases of minor importance, their jurisdiction being usually limited to cases in which the amount involved does not exceed a certain small sum, or where

the title to real estate does not come into controversy. They are also conservators of the peace, and possess the powers of committing magistrates, and also, in some states, final jurisdiction over minor offenses and breaches of the peace.

In many of the states, there are established courts in the larger cities, called "municipal courts," which are invested with a minor civil jurisdiction similar to that of justices of the peace, usually limited to a small sum, and sometimes concurrent, up to that limit, with the jurisdiction of the circuit or district courts. They usually possess jurisdiction in criminal cases, extending to the final trial of minor offenses, such as violations of municipal ordinances or breaches of the peace, which are not triable by jury, and jurisdiction in graver cases to make a preliminary investigation and hold the offender to bail. In some states, they also have appellate jurisdiction over the justices of the peace.

The "police courts" found in some of the states are very similar to the municipal courts just mentioned, except that, as a general rule, they have no civil jurisdiction, being confined to the trial of petty criminal offenses and the preliminary inquiry into felonies and high misdemeanors. Analogous to these are the courts now found in many of the states, and particularly in the larger cities, for disposing of cases of juvenile delinquency and, in some instances, of wrongs to domestic relations generally, and courts for the trial and punishment of violations of traffic regulations, the latter being in some cases erected for that purpose alone and in other cases constituting a branch of the police court.

The foregoing general view makes no mention of various courts which are peculiar to one or a few of the states. The state judiciary systems, as already observed, are marked by great diversities in the details. And the limits of the present work do not admit of a review of the powers of such courts as the "corporation courts," "hustings courts," "mayor's courts," "parish courts," "prerogative courts," "recorders' courts," and others, existing only in a few of the states.