''United States v. Kirby'', 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 482 (1868), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that statutes must be constructed reasonably.

Facts

In 1868, Farris, who was a carrier of the

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...

, was indicted for murder in the Circuit Court of

Gallatin County, Kentucky Gallatin County, is a county located in the northern part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Warsaw. The county was founded in 1798 and named for Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Thomas Jefferson. ...

. The state court judge issued a

bench warrant An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual, or the search and seizure of an individual's property. Canada Arrest warrants are issued by a ju ...

to Kirby, the sheriff of Gallatin County, who seized Farris and brought him before the state court. However, the federal government then obtained an indictment from a grand jury charging Sheriff Kirby with "knowingly and willfully obstructing or retarding the passage of the mail", a federal offense under an Act of March 3, 1825. The question of "whether the arrest of the mail-carrier upon the bench warrant from the Circuit Court of Gallatin County was, in the circumstances, an obstruction of the mail within the meaning of the Act of Congress," was certified to the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

Holding

Mr. Justice Field, for a unanimous court, answered the certified question in the negative by applying the cardinal rule "that all laws should receive a sensible construction," and that literal interpretations which "lead to injustice, oppression, or an absurd consequence" should be avoided. The Court concluded that "The

reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

of the law in such cases should prevail over its letter", and therefore ruled that the law could not be applied to the sheriff's actions.

External links

* *{{caselaw source , case = ''United States v. Kirby'', {{ussc, 74, 482, 1868, Wall., 7, el=no , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/88029/united-states-v-kirby/ , findlaw = https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/74/482.html , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6550131058590404962 , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/74/482/ , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep074/usrep074482/usrep074482.pdf , openjurist =https://openjurist.org/74/us/482 1868 in United States case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Chase Court United States statutory interpretation case law History of Kentucky Criminal cases in the Chase Court

Facts

Holding

See also

External links