The discretion of the federal courts to enjoin proceedings in State courts has not been left exclusively to doctrines of comity, for since 1793 the federal courts have been prohibited by statute from restraining proceedings in State courts.[659] Initially this statute was applied with strict literalness in condemning attempts by the lower federal courts to enter exceptions to it,[660] but gradually the Supreme Court began to interpret the provision as not prohibitive of all injunctions. First, it has been held that an injunction will lie against proceedings in a State court to protect the lawfully acquired jurisdiction of a federal court against impairment or defeat.[661] This exception is notably applicable to cases where the federal court has taken possession of property which it may protect by injunction from interference by State courts.[662] Second, in order to prevent irreparable damages to persons and property the federal courts may restrain the legal officers of a State from taking proceedings in State courts to enforce State legislation alleged to be unconstitutional.[663] Nor does the prohibition of § 265 of the Judicial Code [28 U.S.C.A. § 2283] prevent injunctions restraining the execution of judgments in State courts obtained by fraud,[664] the restraint of proceedings in State courts in cases which have been removed to the federal courts,[665] nor, until lately, to proceedings in State courts to relitigate issues previously adjudicated and finally settled by decrees of a federal court.[666]
In Toucey v. New York Life Insurance Co.,[667] Justice Frankfurter, as spokesman for the Court, reviewed earlier cases and in effect overruled the exception of suits designed to relitigate issues previously adjudicated by a federal court, and held that a suit for injunction would not lie to restrain a proceeding in a State court on the ground that the claim had been previously adjudicated. In so doing he placed this issue in its proper context of res judicata. In addition he went beyond the requirements of the case at bar to cast doubts upon the exception of suits brought to enjoin the execution of judgments of State courts obtained by fraud. Furthermore, by regarding the exception of suits restraining proceedings in State courts in cases which had been removed to the federal courts as emanating from the removal acts, Justice Frankfurter concluded that only one exception had been made by judicial construction to § 265, [28 U.S.C.A. § 2283] namely, that permitting injunction of proceedings in State courts to protect the possession of property previously acquired.[668] The rule of this case was extended on the same day to forbid an injunction to restrain proceedings in a State court in support of jurisdiction previously begun earlier and still pending in the federal court.[669]
Federal Injunctions of State Official Action
Injunctions by federal courts restraining State officials from enforcing unconstitutional State statutes constitute an indirect interference with State courts and a serious obstruction to the administration of public policy. From Osborn v. Bank of the United States,[670] which was the first case in which an injunction was used to restrain State action under an unconstitutional statute, to Ex parte Young[671] the Supreme Court established firmly the rule that jurisdiction exists in the federal courts to restrain the enforcement of unconstitutional State statutes and to enjoin State officials charged with the duty of enforcing State laws from bringing criminal or civil proceedings to enforce an invalid statute. Until Ex parte Young, the Court had been careful to sustain the jurisdiction of the lower federal courts to enjoin the enforcement of unconstitutional State legislation only after a finding of unconstitutionality,[672] but Ex parte Young abandoned this rule by holding that the enforcement of a State statute by the attorney general of the State through proceedings in State courts could be enjoined pending the determination of its constitutionality.
Ex Parte Young
Although a suit to restrain the attorney general of a State from proceeding in the courts of the State to enforce a State law not declared unconstitutional would seem effectively to stay proceedings in a State court, Justice Peckham drew a distinction between the power to enjoin the attorney general and other law officers as individuals and a suit against a State court on the ground that the former does not include the "power to prevent any investigation or action by a grand jury. The latter body is part of the machinery of a criminal court, and an injunction against a State court would be a violation of the whole scheme of our Government."[673] Justice Harlan, not convinced by this distinction, characterized the suit as an attempt "to tie the hands of the State so that it could not in any manner or by any mode of proceeding in its own courts, test the validity of the statutes and orders in question."[674]
Although the rigor of the rule of Ex parte Young has been mitigated by subsequent decisions[675] and the mode of its exercise somewhat narrowed by statute, it has not been overruled and remains a source of friction in federal-state relations. Simultaneously, however, § 266 (see [note 2] above) has been construed strictly as designed "to secure the public interest in 'a limited class of cases of special importance,'"[676] and not "a measure of broad social policy to be construed with great liberality, but as an enactment technical in the strict sense of the term and to be applied as such."[677]
STATE INTERFERENCE BY HABEAS CORPUS PROCEEDINGS WITH FEDERAL JURISDICTION
The most spectacular type of State court interference with federal courts has been their use of the writ of habeas corpus to release persons in federal custody. Between 1815 and 1861, judges in nine State courts asserted the right to release persons in federal custody,[678] and the issue was not finally settled until 1859, when Ableman v. Booth[679] was decided. Here a Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court first released a prisoner held by a United States commissioner on charges of violating the fugitive slave law. After the trial, conviction, and sentence of the defendant, the State supreme court issued a second writ of habeas corpus and after hearing ordered the release of the prisoner. The national Supreme Court then issued a writ of error to the State court which refused to make a return. In an opinion based in part on national supremacy and in part on dual sovereignty, Chief Justice Taney, speaking for the Court, laid down the absolute rule that no State court has the power to release prisoners held in custody under the authority of the United States.[680]