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Nofire v. United States

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Nofire v. United States, 164 U.S. 657 (1897)
by the Supreme Court of the United States
Syllabus
824241Nofire v. United States, 164 U.S. 657 (1897) — Syllabus1897by the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

164 U.S. 657

NOFIRE  v.  UNITED STATES

Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Arkansas

No. 578. Submitted: Dec. 15, 1896 --- Decided: Jan. 4, 1897 

Court Documents

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 offence 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.

Mr. Assistant Attorney General Whitney for defendants in error.

No appearance for plaintiffs in error.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).

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