Due Process of Law and the Equal Protection of the Laws: A Treatise Based, in the Main, on the Cases in Which the Supreme Court of the United States Has Granted Or Denied Relief Upon the One Ground Or the Other (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Due Process of Law and the Equal Protection of the Laws: A Treatise Based, in the Main, on the Cases in Which the Supreme Court of the United States Has Granted or Denied Relief Upon the One Ground or the Other

The first and only attempt ever made to induce the Supreme Court of the United States to recognize the existence in this country of a droit administratif occurred in the famous case of the United States v. Lee, 106 U. S. 196, involving the title to the Arlington estate, sold dur ing the Civil war to the United States for taxes, the cer tificate of sale being impeached because of the refusal of the commissioners to permit the owner to pay the tax, with interest and costs, before the day of sale, by an agent, or in any other way than by payment in person. After the case, an action of ejectment, had been removed to the United States Circuit Court, the Attorney General challenged its jurisdiction, and denied its right to pro ceed because the property in controversy in this suit has been for more than ten years and now is held, occu pied and possessed by the United States, through its ofii cers and agents, charged in behalf of the Government of the United States with the control of the property, and who are in the actual possession thereof, as public prop etty of the United States, for public uses, in the exercise of their sovereign and constitutional powers as a mili tary station and as a national cemetery established for the burial of deceased soldiers and sailors, and known and designed as the 'arlington Cemetery.' Against that plea of droit administratif thus set up by the agents of the Government of the United States stood the conten tion of the plaintiff that the property in question was his private property, and that it had been taken from him in violation of the constitutional provisions which guaranty due process of law, and that private property can not be taken for public use without just compensation. The issue so made up between the droit administratif and the law of the land was thus stated by the court itself.

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