The following excerpt is from In re Robb, 19 F. 26 (9th Cir. 1884):
'Some attempt has been made in adjudications, to which our attention has been called, to limit the decision of this court in Ableman v. Booth, and the United States v. Booth, to cases where a prisoner is held in custody under undisputed lawful authority of the United States, as distinguished from his imprisonment under claim and color of such authority. But it is evident that the decision does not admit of any such limitation. It would have been unnecessary to enforce, by any extended reasoning, such as the chief justice uses, the position that when it appeared to the judge or officer issuing the writ that the prisoner was held under undisputed lawful authority, he should proceed no further. No federal judge, even, could, in such case, release the party from imprisonment, except upon bail when that was allowable. The detention being by admitted lawful authority, no judge could set the prisoner at liberty, except in that way, at any stage of the proceeding. All that is meant by the language used is that the state judge or state court should proceed no further when it appears, from the application of the party, or the return made, that the prisoner is held by an officer of the United States under what, in truth, purports to be the authority of the United States; that is, an authority, the validity of which is to be determined by the constitution and laws of the United States. If a party thus held be illegally imprisoned, it is for the courts or judicial officers of the United States, and those courts or officers alone, to grant him release.'
The court concludes:
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