respecting the construction of the article could possibly be
raised. The court decided, and we think very properly, that the
legislature could not give original jurisdiction in such a case.
But in the reasoning of the court in support of this decision
some expressions are used which go far beyond it.... The general
expressions in the case of Marbury _v._ Madison must be
understood with the limitations which are given to them in this
opinion; limitations which in no degree affect the decision in
that case or the tenor of its reasoning." He then proceeded to
dispose of the case in hand by saying that Virginia having
obtained an erroneous judgment against Cohens, Cohens had a right
to appeal, and the suit still remained a suit by a State against
him and not by him against a State. Unfortunately, here again
came in next an _obiter dictum_. If, he said, this were not
so, there was another principle equally decisive in support of
the jurisdiction, namely, that the Constitution gave the United
States judicial power over all cases arising under the
Constitution or laws of the United States without respect to
parties. Nearly a hundred years later a State was sued in the
courts of the United States on a cause of action arising under
the Constitution, and Cohens _v._ Virginia was relied on as
a precedent. "It must be conceded," was the reply of the Supreme
Court, "that the last observation of the Chief Justice does favor
the argument of the plaintiff. But the observation was
unnecessary to the decision, and in that sense extra-judicial,
and though made by one who seldom used words without due
reflection, ought not to outweigh the important considerations
referred to which lead to a different conclusion."[Footnote: Hans
_v._ Louisiana, 134 United States Reports, 1, 20.]