Opinion of the Court. care and custody of the infant from a very short time after its birth and still had it; and that they had taken good care of it, were capable of taking good care of it, and were very much attached to it, and it was attached to them; and they claimed the right to continue in the custody and control of the child, who was then between eight and nine years old. Afterwards, on the 25th day of June, 1889, Judge Dundy made an order that said Evelyn E. Miller, the child, was improperly detained and kept by Thomas Burrus and Catherine Burrus, and that she, the said Evelyn E. Miller, should be awarded to the care and custody of her father, Louis E. Miller, the petitioner, and that said Burrus and wife produce the child before the court within five days from the date of said order. From this order an appeal was taken to the Circuit Court for that District, before Judge Brewer, who decided that neither he nor the Circuit Court had any jurisdiction to hear the case on appeal, and remitted the case to the District Court. On the 16th of December, 1889, an order was made reciting that the court had heard the argument of counsel on a motion to stay proceedings and dismiss the cause for want of jurisdiction of the court, and the court being of opinion that the cause was properly before it, and that the judge had jurisdiction of the same, and ordering that the stay of proceedings theretofore granted be terminated, and that the judgment of the court made on the 25th day of June, 1889, be carried into effect. It appears that the order for the delivery of the child to the father was obeyed in the presence of the court, but that, Miller having started from Omaha for his home in Ohio with the child, the petitioner Burrus and his wife got into the same train, and crossed the Missouri River on that train, and that when they reached Council Bluffs, in the State of Iowa, on the opposite side of the river, they again made efforts to secure possession of the child. The result of these efforts was, that the father proceeded somewhat further into the State of Iowa, whilst the defendants, taking possession of the child with violence and against the will of the father, returned with it to the State of Nebraska. Thereupon Burrus and his wife were called before the District Court by a writ of attachment Opinion of the Court. for contempt in disobeying the orders of the court, and for this contempt Burrus was committed to imprisonment for three months in a county jail, in the custody of the marshal of Nebraska. It is from this imprisonment that he now seeks to be relieved by the present proceedings in this court; and the foundation of his claim of right to be so relieved is, that neither the District Court of Nebraska nor Judge Dundy, the judge of that court, had any jurisdiction whatever in the original case of habeas corpus before him. That is the only question in the present case, for we have no power under this writ to inquire into mere errors committed by the District Court in the progress of that case, and if we had, we are not satisfied that any such errors exist save as to the alleged error of the assumption of jurisdiction in the case. Whether such jurisdiction existed is, therefore, the sole question before us. The question of the extent of the authority of the courts of the United States to use the writ of habeas corpus as a means of releasing persons held in unlawful custody has always been clouded with more or less doubt and uncertainty. The Constitution, by declaring that "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it," added to the exalted estimate in which that writ has always been held in this country and in England. By the fourteenth section of the act establishing the judicial courts of the United States, it is declared" that all the before-mentioned courts of the United States shall have power to issue writs of scire facias, habeas corpus, and all other writs not specially provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, and agreeable to the principles and usages of law; and that either of the Justices of the Supreme Court, as well as judges of the district courts, shall have power to grant writs of habeas corpus for the purpose of an inquiry into the cause of commitment: Provided, That writs of habeas corpus shall in no case extend to prisoners in jail unless where they are in custody under or by color of the authority of the United States, or are committed for trial before some court of the same, or are necessary to be brought into court to testify." Opinion of the Court. It will be seen in this section, that, while there may be many writs not specifically provided for in the statute which shall be within the powers of the courts of the United States, the framers of that statute were careful to mention specifically the writs of scire facias and of habeas corpus, and to make some special provisions in regard to the latter. As to the power of the courts to issue any of these writs it was said, that they must be necessary to the exercise of the jurisdiction of the respective courts and agreeable to the principles and usages of law. In reference to the writ of habeas corpus, it is expressly enacted that either of the Justices of the Supreme Court, as well as judges of the District Courts, shall have power to grant the writ for the purpose of an inquiry into the cause of commitment. This latter clause has been interpreted occasionally as authorizing the issuing of the writ in any case where a person is imprisoned or confined by an order of a court, for the purposes of an inquiry into the cause of commitment. But the proviso, proceeding upon the idea of the first clause, that in order to the issuing of this writ it must be necessary for the exercise of the jurisdiction of the court which issues it, declares that the writ "shall in no case extend to prisoners in jail, unless where they are in custody under or by color of the authority of the United States, or are committed for trial before some court of the same, or are necessary to be brought into court to testify." This statute, of course, left cases of prisoners in confinement by order of state authorities without the benefit of this writ from the courts or justices or judges of the United States, and the law remained in this condition until the events connected with the nullification proceedings in South Carolina, by which officers of the United States engaged in collecting the revenue and performing other duties in that State were for that reason subjected by the laws of South Carolina to imprisonment. In the recent case of Cunningham v. Neagle, 135 U. S. 1, we have had occasion to review the course of legislation by Congress on the subject of the writ of habeas corpus, which has mainly, as now found in the Revised Statutes of the United States, reference to provisions for protecting the individual Opinion of the Court. liberty of persons, citizens of the United States and subjects or citizens of foreign governments, from illegal imprisonment under state authority. It is not necessary to go over that field on this occasion. It is sufficient to say that the net result of the discussion is, that all the courts of the United States, and the justices and judges of all its courts, are authorized to issue the writ of habeas corpus in any case where a party is imprisoned or held in custody for an act done by or under the authority of the laws of the United States, or where his imprisonment is in violation of the Constitution of the United States, or where it is supposed to be in violation of the law of nations or of the United States, in all which cases the federal courts and judges have jurisdiction to make inquiry into the matter, and, in the language of the statute, when the prisoner is brought before them and the matter is inquired into, the court or justice or judge shall "dispose of the party as law and justice require." It is not now the law, therefore, and never was, that every person held in unlawful imprisonment has a right to invoke the aid of the courts of the United States for his release by the writ of habeas corpus. In order to obtain the benefit of this writ and to procure its being issued by the court or justice or judge who has a right to order its issue, it should be made to appear, upon the application for the writ, that it is founded upon some matter which justifies the exercise of federal authority, and which is necessary to the enforcement of rights under the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States. It is true that perhaps the court or judge who is asked to issue such a writ need not be very critical in looking into the petition or application for very clear grounds of the exercise of this jurisdiction, because, when the prisoner is brought before the court, or justice, or judge, his power to make full inquiry into the cause of commitment or detention will enable him to correct any errors or defects in the petition under which the writ issued; and it is upon such hearing to be finally determined by the tribunal before whom the prisoner is brought whether his imprisonment or custody is in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United Opinion of the Court. States. The cases on this subject, as they have been decided in the courts of the country, are not altogether in accord, but we think this is a fair statement of the law as it stands at the present time, under the statutes of the United States and the decisions of this court. This subject was considered with much ability in Ex parte McCardle, 6 Wall. 318. In that case, although the court was speaking mainly of the jurisdiction of this court by way of appeal, yet it made the following observation with reference to the act of February 5, 1867, 14 Stat. 385, then recently passed. The language of that statute was, that, in addition to the authority already conferred on the several courts of the United States and the justices and judges of said courts, they shall have power "to grant writs of habeas corpus in all cases where any person may be restrained of his or her liberty in violation of the Constitution, or of any treaty or law of the United States; and it shall be lawful for such person so restrained of his or her liberty to apply to either of said justices or judges for a writ of habeas corpus, which application shall be in writing and verified by affidavit, and shall set forth the facts concerning the detention of the party applying, in whose custody he or she is detained, and by virtue of what claim or authority, if known; and the said justice or judge to whom such application shall be made shall forthwith award a writ of habeas corpus, unless it shall appear from the petition itself that the party is not deprived of his or her liberty in contravention of the Constitution or laws of the United States." In reference to this statute, Chief Justice Chase, speaking for the court, in that case, said: "This legislation is of the most comprehensive character. It brings within the habeas corpus jurisdiction of every court and of every judge every possible case of privation of liberty contrary to the national Constitution, treaties or laws. It is impossible to widen this jurisdiction. It is to this jurisdiction that the system of appeals is applied." The provision of this statute is reproduced, with others on the same subject, in section 753 of the Revised Statutes. In Ex parte Dorr, 3 How. 103, an application was made to |