Argument for Appellant. 263 U.S. tutions of the State,-the court had power to sentence appellant to a term at hard labor, which is an infamous punishment, which may not be inflicted except after indictment or presentment by grand jury. 7. A sentence to imprisonment in the County Jail of Essex County, would be a sentence to hard labor. Chapter 271 of the Laws of 1917 of New Jersey provides: "The board of chosen freeholders of any county in this State may cause to be employed within such county any and all prisoners in any county jail under sentence, or committed for non-payment of a fine and costs, or committed in default of bond for non-support of the family." The labor at which appellant would be "employed " would be "hard labor," because it would be involuntary servitude, irrespective of whether it happened to be physically arduous or easy. Bouvier Law Dict., "Hard Labor"; United States v. Moreland, 258 U. S. 433, 444, (dissent); Ex parte Wilson, 114 U. S. 417, 428. Moreover, there seems to be no restriction as to the kind of labor the "freeholders" or the "master" can select. The statute gives them free rein. They can make it just as "hard," using the word in its ordinary sense, as they choose, and, as already noted, the test is not what is likely to be done, but what may be done. 8. Any crime punishable by imprisonment is infamous. An infamous crime is one, conviction of which is supposed ipso facto to destroy one's good name. Therefore, accusation of it implies damage, and special damage need not be averred or proved. In the opinions of the people, it has long been considered that a crime punishable directly by imprisonment, (not in default of the payment of a fine,) in any sort of criminal jail or prison, is "infamous," Only offenses that are punishable by fine are not infamous. Odgers on Libel and Slander, 5th ed., 38-43. 4 Opinion of the Court. Mr. Solicitor General Beck and Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Assistant Attorney General, appeared for appellee. MR. JUSTICE MCKENNA delivered the opinion of the Court. Dismissal of a writ of habeas corpus is assailed by this appeal. It was issued to review the legality of a conviction upon information and a sentence of imprisonment upon it. In detail of the grounds and justification of it, the charge of the petition is that appellant was proceeded against in the District Court upon an information charging him with a violation of § 21, Title II, of the Act of Congress of October 28, 1919, c. 85, 41 Stat. 305, 314, the National Prohibition Act, and convicted on the 17th day of June, 1920, and sentenced to pay a fine of $500.00, and be imprisoned for sixty days. In execution of the sentence it is alleged that he was committed to the custody of the appellee, he being the United States marshal for the Eastern District of New York. The further allegation of the petition is that the court "never acquired jurisdiction of the pretended criminal action upon which, in form, it tried and condemned" him, "for the reason that the crime of which "he" was charged and for which said Court sought to try and condemn him "is an infamous crime within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and no presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury charging same, was ever filed or presented." After hearing, the writ was discharged and appellant was remanded to the custody of the marshal to serve his sentence under the commitment, which was to the county jail of Essex County, New Jersey. Is the contention of appellant justified in that his was a conviction and commitment of an infamous crime? It is upon this contention that his petition rests. Opinion of the Court., 263 U.S. It has been decided that a crime takes on the quality of infamy if it be one punishable by imprisonment at hard labor or in a penitentiary, and must be proceeded against upon presentment or indictment of a grand jury. Ex parte Wilson, 114 U. S. 417; Mackin v. United States, 117 U. S. 348; United States v. Moreland, 258 U. S. 433. And such is the quality of the crime and the procedure against it if the statute authorizes the court to condemn to such punishment. See also In re Bonner, 151 U. S. 242; In re Mills, 135 U. S. 263. Or, to put it as counsel puts it, "The construction of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution is this: An infamous crime is one that carries infamous punishment; the test does not depend upon the punishment that ultimately happens to be inflicted, but upon the punishment the court has power to inflict." To show the pertinence of the test and its adaptation to the case, it is the contention of the appellant that the court had power, and only power, to sentence him to imprisonment in a penal institution of New York, and that by the law of the State, by federal statute madeapplicable to federal prisoners therein, imprisonment is at hard labor. The argument by which the contention is attempted to be sustained is somewhat strained. It rests upon the power the statutes give to the courts to specify the places of imprisonment, which began, it is said, in 1789. By a resolution then passed, the state legislatures were recommended to receive and keep prisoners committed under the authority of the United States "under the like penalties as in the case of prisoners committed under the authority of such States respectively. . . ." 1 Stat. 96. The purpose thus expressed was in substance repeated subsequently, and §§ 5537 and 5538, Rev. Stats., reproducing a resolution adopted in 1821 (3 Stat. 646), §§ 5542 and 5548, reproducing 4 Stat. 118, and 4 Stat. 777, are 4 Opinion of the Court. cited. Sections 5546 and 5541 are also cited, they having their origin in 13 Stat. 74, and 500. It is provided in §§ 5537 and 5538 that, where a State does not allow the use of its jails to United States prisoners, the marshal under direction of the court may hire or procure a temporary jail, and that the marshal shall make provisions for the safe keeping of prisoners until permanent provision for that purpose is made by law. By § 5542, where the sentence is imprisonment to hard labor, the court may direct its execution "within the district or State where such court is held." Section 5548 provides that where punishment for an offense is by fine or imprisonment it may be executed in any house of correction or house of reformation for juvenile delinquents "within the State or district where" such court is held. Section 5546 provides that the place of imprisonment, where there may be no penitentiary or jail suitable for the confinement of convicts or available therefor, may be in some suitable jail or penitentiary in a convenient State or Territory to be designated by the Attorney General. And power to change is given to the Attorney General.. The provisions of these sections seem adaptive to all imprisonments and to all grades of crime. In other words, have an adaptive and harmonious relation, and such relation they were declared to have in In re Karstendick, 93 U. S. 396. Appellant, however, contends that § 5546 may be treated as a proviso of §§ 5541 and 5542, and that the latter sections "define the only instances in which a United States court can sentence a prisoner to confinement in a 'state jail or penitentiary' within the State, that is, when the statute requires hard labor as part of the punishment or when the imprisonment is for more than a year, and that, therefore, when the sentence is in terms to imprisonment merely, for a year or less, Opinion of the Court. 263 U S. the court has no power to sentence the prisoner 'to a suitable jail or penitentiary in a convenient State . . designated by the Attorney General.'" We are not impressed with the contention. The reasoning to sustain it is that Congress "could give District Courts the power to sentence short-term convicts to institutions beyond the limits of their ordinary jurisdiction," but it hasn't." And further, "although Congress was willing, when the facts justified, that a long-termer should be sent beyond the borders of his State, they were unwilling that a short-termer should be so dealt with." The reasoning does not convince us. We prefer, and accept, the clear and direct power given to the Attorney General (§ 5546), and there is nothing in In re Mills and In re Bonner that militates against it. In re Mills decided that when a statute does not require imprisonment in a penitentiary, a sentence cannot impose it unless the sentence is for a period longer than one year. In re Bonner is to the same effect. In other words, the sentences cannot transcend those of the statutes. In both cases the sentences were convictions upon indictments. They are authorities against, not for, the appellant. His contention changes the penalty of the statute and therefore repels. The statute provides that, for the offense here charged, the offender shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not exceeding one year, or both. (§ 21.) Where the charge is selling, as in the Wyman Case, post, 14, the punishment, for the first offense, is a fine not more than $1,000, and imprisonment not exceeding six months. National Prohibition Act, § 29, 41 Stat. 316. The statute excludes the imposition of hard labor or imprisonment in a penitentiary. Under the contention of appellant both would be imposed. Imprisonment must be, is the assertion, in a New York penitentiary, and at hard labor, the latter consequence because of the |