Ex parte Brown

The contention on the part of the petitioner is that it affirmatively appears on the face of the papers that the Criminal Court, by which the petitioner was committed for contempt, exceeded its jurisdiction in committing for the supposed offence. The only contempt, it appears, was the petitioner’s refusal to search for and produce certain telegraphic dispatches alleged to be in the office of the Western Union Telegraph Company in the city of St. Louis, of which company the petitioner is manager in that city, in obedience to a subpoena choces tecum issued by the Criminal Court at the instance…