Courts of Claims are the only permanent special courts for the
disposition of causes arising from the acts of public
officials.[Footnote: One exists for the United States; and one
for New York.] The system of administrative law prevailing on
the Continent of Europe, by which all such matters are withheld
from the ordinary tribunals, is totally unknown here. If the
Secretary of War of the United States should do some act to a
private citizen, which may be justified by his official powers,
but otherwise would not be, he may be summoned to answer for it
before any civil court having jurisdiction of the parties. So
may even the President of the United States be sued after the
expiration of his term.

The President, while President, however, cannot be compelled to
obey a summons to appear in court. The country cannot spare him
to go here and there in obedience to a writ. Chief Justice
Marshall issued one against President Jefferson, directing him to
appear at the trial of Aaron Burr and bring with him a certain
paper. Jefferson declined to obey, and there was no attempt to
enforce the subpoena. Had there been, it would have been found
that he had taken measures for his protection.[Footnote: Thayer,
"John Marshall," 79.] Marshall's action was based on an
admission by the counsel for the government that a summons to
testify could lawfully issue, though they denied that it could be
accompanied by a direction to produce documents. This admission
is now generally thought by the legal profession to have been
ill-advised. If the President could be summoned at all, he could
be compelled to obey the summons, and nothing could be more
unseemly or inadmissible than an attempt of that nature by the
judiciary against the executive power of the United States.