In re Vedder

This case comes up on a habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, in which the petitioner seeks to be restored to the custody of her infant female child, thirteen months of age. The return to the writ shows that the child is in the care and keeping of her grand-father, who has been appointed her guardian, with the right of custody, by the probate judge, for the County of Zevada.

The only inquiry proper to this proceeding is this&emdash;is the infant in legal custody ? That the equity powers of this court extend to all questions of guardianship is, I think, hardly to be doubted. The sixth section of the SOth.article of the constitution invests the district courts with all the powers known to courts of equity, and none of those powers are more thoroughly established than the full authority over the subject of the guardianship of minors. But it ip the common law, and not the equity powers of this court, that are invoked by this proceeding.

The common law courts possess no power of this kind. They exercise no supervision, over the subject of guardianship. It is true, that upon & writ of habeas corpus, a common law court, or a judge thereof, may inquire whether the prisoner is illegally…