decentralization of our state government has gone. The head of this department is the superintendent of public instruction. The state raises and distributes each year about one-fifth of all the money used for the support of the public schools, that is, from one and a half to two million dollars. And one would therefore infer that it would have some direct voice in their control and direction. But as a matter of fact schools are left entirely to local initiative and management. Local school boards are entirely independent of the state superintendent, and the central department exercises no direct control whatever over schools, though indirectly the superintendent does much through teachers' examinations, the control of institutes, and other general influences which he can bring to bear on school authorities. The superintendent's immediate duties are mainly clerical. He gathers statistics, receives and makes reports, and figures out the apportionment of the state educational funds.

CHAPTER XIV

THE JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

230. REFERENCES

Constitution, Art. VI.-Schouler's Constitutional Studies, Part III., chapter VII.-Hinsdale, American Government, chapter LIII.-Macy, Our Government, Part III.

231. The first section of Article VI. provides that there shall be one Supreme Court, Circuit Courts and Justice of the Peace Courts. The legislature may also establish Municipal Courts, and there must be a separate Probate Court in each county. These are all the state courts, as the last sentence of section 5 of this article says, "the office of Master in Chancery is prohibited," thereby preventing the reëstablishment of the state court of chancery which had been abolished four years before.

The organization of these various courts is in part prescribed in the constitution and in part left to legislative action. There had been a distinct Supreme Court under the Constitution of 1835, but this was now abolished. The state, exclusive of the Upper Peninsula, was divided into eight circuits, each with its circuit judge, and these eight judges were to sit together to form the Supreme Court,2 a plan that could not be abolished for six years.

This rather awkward arrangement lasted little longer than the constitution required. In 1857 a law 1 Constitution, Schedule, § 29. Ibid., Art. VI., §2.

was passed organizing a distinct Supreme Court of one supreme justice and three associates, a form, however, prescribed in the constitution,' to enter upon their duties upon the first of January, 1858. The judges were to be elected, not appointed; their term was eight years, only one to go out of office in any one year. Under this arrangement one Supreme Court judge was elected every second year. In 1887, by an amendment to the constitution, one judge was added to the court, so that there were five, and the term was lengthened to ten years. Now three more judges have been added. and the term reduced to eight years. The judges receive a salary of $7,000 and are obliged by law to live in Lansing during their term of office. There are two other officers, a clerk and a reporter, appointed by the court, and whose duties are obvious.

232. By the terms of the constitution the Supreme Court has almost no original jurisdiction, that is, it is almost entirely an appellate court. But it has general superintending control over the inferior courts, and can issue such writs as are necessary to enforce its authority, such as writs of error, habeas corpus, mandamus, quo warranto, etc. As its name implies it is supreme. On all state questions, that is, questions arising under its laws or constitution, and not involving the Constitution of the United States, it is the ultimate tribunal. Its decisions are final and they cannot be revised or reviewed by any other court, state or national.

233. As has been mentioned, the constitution at first required that there should be eight circuits in the

1 Constitution, Art. VI., § 2.

2 Comp. Laws, § 186.

3 Art. VI. § 3.

state.1 The legislature, however, was given the power to increase the number' and there are now thirtyeight. Each circuit is to have one circuit judge, but more are allowed in the Third (Wayne Co.), the Tenth (Saginaw), the Seventeenth (Kent) and the Thirtyfirst (St. Clair). All the circuit judges are elected in the same year for a term of six years. Both these and the supreme judges are elected at a spring election (the first Monday in April) in order to avoid as much as possible the political influences that prevail in the more general elections in November. Each circuit judge, and also each judge of the Recorder's Court in Detroit, and the judge of the Superior Court of Grand Rapids, is paid from the state treasury a salary of $2,500, but the boards of supervisors in Wayne, Saginaw, and Kent counties, and also in the Upper Peninsula, are authorized to vote additional salaries."

8

These Circuit Courts have what we may call complete jurisdiction. They have original jurisdiction over every kind of a case, of every grade. The only exceptions to this are the exclusive jurisdiction in small causes granted by law to justices of the peace, and probate matters, which were once dealt with by courts of this kind, but now have a court of their own. Yet from both these courts cases can go to the Circuit Court on appeal.9

1 Art. VI., 6. This clause was amended in 1889 so that the word "eight" no longer appears in it.

? Art. VI., 7.

3 Besides two municipal courts of about the same rank.

4 The first of these has six judges, the others two each.

5 The first election was in 1857.

6 Comp. Laws, § 165.

"Art. VI., 6.

8 Constitution, Art. VI., 8, Comp. Laws, § 307.

'There are two municipal courts in the state of about the

Why are these called circuit courts? We have already seen how Henry II and his judges went from place to place to hold court. Circuit courts grew out

of this custom and we have inherited them. Then our circuits are still for the most part real circuits. The judge still goes from place to place to hold court. As a rule a number of counties are grouped into a circuit and the judge holds court in each. The county is, as it has always been, the court district. When a circuit court is in session in a county, its jurisdiction is confined to cases originating in the county. Each county has its county seat, and its court-house where the court is held.'

As the Circuit Court is a court of record, that is, a court whose decisions can be cited and used in other courts and in other cases, it must have a clerk to keep a record of its proceedings. The county clerk is such clerk in each county. As the court can issue orders and decisions and pronounce sentences, and issue all the various writs necessary for the full assertion of its authority, it must have an executive or administrative officer to put its orders into execution, and this officer in each county is the sheriff. . Our modern methods have added a new court official in the last few years,

same rank as circuit courts. One is the Recorder's Court in Detroit, with two judges. This court has some purely municipal functions, as it has to deal with violations of city ordinances (Comp. Laws, § 590), but it is also a criminal court with the criminal jurisdiction of the circuit court, but confined to cases arising within the city (Comp. Laws, §§ 579, 580). The Superior Court of Grand Rapids is a similar court for that city, but has both civil and criminal jurisdiction (Comp. Laws, § 630).

'There must be at least two terms of court a year in each county and in counties of over 10,000 inhabitants, four terms. -Constitution, Art. VI., II.