Quo warranto
From Free net encyclopedia
Quo warranto (pseudo-Latin for "by what warrant?") is one of the prerogative writs, the one that requires the person to whom it is directed to show what authority he has for exercising some right or power (or "franchise") he claims to hold.
In its earliest days in England, it might be a court's order (or "writ") to someone acting as the sheriff to prove the king had actually appointed him to that office (literally, "Who made you the sheriff?"). In the U.S.A. today, quo warranto usually arises in a civil case as a plaintiff's claim (and thus a "cause of action" instead of a writ) that some governmental or corporate official was not validly elected to that office or is wrongfully exercising powers beyond (or ultra vires) those authorized by statute or by the corporation's charter.
In some jurisdictions which have enacted judicial review statutes, such as Queensland, the prerogative writ of quo warranto has been abolished [1].
With U.S. independence sovereignty passed from the monarch to the people, and with it the right and authority of every individual to seek the prerogative writs, such as quo warranto and habeas corpus, "in the name of the people", for oneself or any other. It is called "prerogative" because a court of competent jurisdiction has no discretion whether to issue them, only to set the response for a hearing, usually within 3-20 days, to hear, ahead of all other cases on its docket, the proof of the respondant that he has authority, and to support the respondant if he provides sufficient proof. By the ancient standard of due process, if the court failed to conduct the hearing, the writ would issue by default without further notice, and could be enforced by any persons as militia.
In the New York Ratification Convention, amendments were proposed to the new Constitution that included one that would recognize the right of every person to bring the prerogative writs "in the name of the people". This right, which may be characterised as the right to a presumption of nonauthority, was apparently considered so obvious by James Madison and others that he combined it with others to become the Ninth Amendment.