federal-state relations. Simultaneously, however, Sec. 266 (_see_ note
2 above[Transcriber's Note: Reference is to footnote 674 of Article III.])
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]

Notwithstanding the strong language of the Court in Ableman _v._ Booth,
the Wisconsin courts thirteen years later again asserted the power to
release persons in federal custody by directing the release of an
enlisted soldier in the custody of a recruiting officer of the United
States Army. Once again the Court held that a State court has no
authority to issue a writ of _habeas corpus_ for the release of persons
held under the authority or claim and color of authority of the United
States. Justice Field for the Court went on to lay down the
generalization that neither government "can intrude with its judicial
process into the domain of the other, except so far as such intrusion
may be necessary on the part of the National Government to preserve its
rightful supremacy in cases of conflict of authority."[681]

FEDERAL INTERFERENCE