Judge of the Tribal Court Home

JUDGE, An officer so named in his commission, who presides in some court; a public officer appointed to preside and to administer the law in a court of justice; the chief member of a court, and charged with the control of the proceedings and the decision of questions of law and discretion. Todd v. U.S., 15 S.Ct. 889, 158 U.S. 278, 39 L.Ed. 982; Foot v. Stiles, 57 N.Y. 405; State v. Le Blond, 108Ohio St. 126, 140 N.E. 510, 512. A public officer who, by virtue of his office, is clothed with judicial authority. State ex rel. Mayer v. City of Cincinnati, Ohio, 60 Ohio App. 119, 19 N.E.2d 902. Presiding officer of court. State v. Horn, 336 Mo. 524, 79 S.W.2d 1044, 1045. Any officer authorized to function as or for judge in doing specified acts. In re Roberts’ Estate, 49 Cal.App.2d 71, 120 P.2d 933, 937.

PUBLIC, n. The whole body politic, or the aggregate of the citizens of a state, district, or municipality. Knight v. Thomas, 93 Me. 494, 45 A. 499. The inhabitants of a state, county or community. People v. Turnbull, 184 Ill.App. 151, 155; Commonwealth v. Bosworth, 257 Mass. 212, 153N.E. 455, 457: In one sense, everybody; and accordingly the body of the people at large; the community at large, without reference to the geographical limits of any corporation like a city, town, or county; the people. In another sense the word does not mean all the people, nor most of the people, nor very many of the people of a place, but so many of them as contradistinguishes them from a few. Accordingly, it has been defined or employed as meaning the inhabitants of a particular place; all the inhabitants of a particular place; the people of the neighborhood. People v. Powell, 280 Mich. 699, 274 N.W. 372, 373, 111 A.L.R. 721; State ex rel. Maher v. Baker, 88 Ohio St. 165, 102 N.E. 732, 736. Also, a part of the inhabitants of a community. Davis v. People, 79 Colo. 642, 247 P. 801, 802.

POLICE, The function of that branch of the administrative machinery of government which is charged with the preservation of public order and tranquility, the promotion of the public health, safety, and morals, and the prevention, detection, and punishment of crimes. State v. Hine.

TRIBAL LANDS, Lands of Indian reservation which are not occupied by individual Indians and are unallotted or common lands of the nation. Tuscarora Nation of Indians v. Williams, 79 Misc. 445, 141 N.Y.S. 207, 208.

Land allotted in severalty to a restricted Indian is no longer part of the “reservation” nor is it “tribal land” but the virtual fee is in the allottee with certain restrictions on the right allenation. United States v. Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co., C.C.A.Okl. 127 F.2d 349, 353.

GOVERNMENT From the Latin gubernaculum. Signifies the instrument, the helm, whereby the ship to which the state was compared, was guided on its course by the “gubernator” or helmsman, and in that view, the government is but an agency of the state, distinguished as it must be in accurate thought from its scheme and machinery of government. State v. Chase, 175 Minn. 259, 220 N.W. 951, 953.

The system of polity in a state, that form of fundamental rules and principles by which a nation or state is governed, or by which individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social actions; a constitution, either written or unwritten, by which the rights and duties of citizens and public officers are prescribed and defined, as a monarchical government, a republican government, etc. Webster.

An empire, kingdom, state or independent political community; as in the phrase, “Compacts between independent governments.”

The sovereign or supreme power in a state or nation.

The machinery by which the sovereign power in a state expresses its will and exercises its functions; or in framework of political institutions, departments, and offices, by means of which the executive judicial and legislative administrative whom devolves the executive, judicial, legislative, and administrative business of the state. Stokes v. United States, C.C.A.Mo., 264 F. 18, 22.

In a colloquial sense, the United States or its representatives, considered as the prosecutor in a criminal action; as in the phrase, “the government objects to the witness.”

The regulation, restraint, supervision, or control which is exercised upon the individual members of an organized jural society by those invested with authority; or the act of exercising supreme political power or control. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. School Dist. No. 1 in Yuma County, 63 Colo. 159, 165 P. 260, 263.