U.S. Supreme Court EX PARTE UNITED STATES, 287 U.S. 241 (1932)

287 U.S. 241

Ex parte UNITED STATES. No. 19. Argued on Return to Rule to Show Cause Nov. 7, 1932. Decided Dec. 5, 1932.

The Attorney General and Mr. Thomas D.

Thacher, Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for the United States.[ Ex parte United States 287 U.S. 241 (1932) ]

[Page 287 U.S. 241, 251]

and complete, and may be exercised upon its own motion and upon such knowledge as it may derive from any source which it may deem proper, and is not exhausted or limited by adverse action taken by a previous grand jury, and that a United States district attorney may present, without leave of court, charges which a previous grand jury has ignored. The necessary effect of the District Court's order, it was said (pages 412, 413 of 251 U.S., 40 S.Ct. 289, 291), 'was to bar the absolute right of the United States to prosecute by subjecting the exercise of that right, not only as to this indictment, but as to all subsequent ones for the same offenses, to a limitation resulting from the exercise of the judicial power,' and to bar the lawful authority of the United States attorney and of the grand jury 'by the application of unauthorized judicial discretion.' These observatons are pertinent here.

Rule made absolute.