Note 589 — ARTICLE III (continued 3)

127 U.S. 265, 297. Note also the dictum in Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 398-399 (1821) to the effect that "* * * the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, in cases where a State is a party, refers to those cases in which, according to the grant of power made in the preceding clause, jurisdiction might be exercised in consequence of the character of the party, and an original suit might be instituted in any of the federal courts; not to those cases in which an original suit might not be instituted in a federal court. Of the last description, is every case between a State and its citizens, and, perhaps every case in which a State is enforcing its penal laws. In such cases, therefore, the Supreme Court cannot take original jurisdiction."