party purposes.[Footnote: Such a case was the issue by a District
Judge of the United States in 1872 of an injunction-order under
which the Marshal took possession of the Louisiana State-house,
and excluded those claiming to be the legislature of the State.
Gibson, "A Political Crime," 347 _et seq._; Senate Report,
457, Forty-second Congress, third session.]

The right of the Governors, which exists under the Constitutions
of several States, to ask the judges of the Supreme Court for
their opinion on any question of law, may throw upon them the
delicate task of deciding in a collateral proceeding who is
Governor, if the title to the office is claimed by two. This was
the case in Florida in 1869. The House of Representatives had
commenced proceedings of impeachment against the Governor. It
was on the first day of a special session of the Assembly. There
could be no such session unless a quorum was present in each
house. There were but twelve Senators in attendance. The
Lieutenant-Governor regarded the proceedings as regular, and
assumed to exercise the office of Governor pending the trial.
The Governor claimed that twelve Senators were not a quorum, and
that the proceedings were void. On these points he requested the
opinion of the Justices of the Supreme Court, and they gave one
supporting his contentions.[Footnote: 12 Florida Reports, 653.]
A few weeks later a regular session was held, at which a quorum
was present in each house, and the proceedings of the special
session were treated as void.[Footnote: S. S. Cox, "Three Decades
of Federal Legislation," 518, 520.]

In the early days of the United States, under the present
Constitution, the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the