UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

NOFIRE V. UNITED STATES, 164 U. S. 657 (1897)

164 U. S. 657

U.S. Supreme Court

Nofire v. United States, 164 U.S. 657 (1897)

Nofire v. United States

No. 678

Submitted December 15, 1896

Decided January 4, 1897

164 U.S. 657

Syllabus

The fact that a marriage license has been issued carries with it a presumption that all statutory prerequisites thereto have been complied with, and one who claims to the contrary must affirmatively show the fact.

Persons coming to a public office to transact business who find a person in charge of it and transacting its business in a regular way are not bound to ascertain his authority to so act; but to them he is an officer de facto, to whose acts the same validity and the same presumptions attach as to those of an officer de jure.

The evidence shows that the deceased sought, in his lifetime, to become a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, took all the steps he supposed necessary therefor, considered himself a citizen, and that the Cherokee Nation in his lifetime recognized him as a citizen and still asserts his citizenship. Held that, under those circumstances, it must be adjudged that he was a citizen by adoption, and consequently that the jurisdiction over the offense charged is, by the laws of the United States and treaties with the Cherokee Nation, vested in the courts of that Nation.

The case is stated in the opinion.


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