107. The essential power of any federal court is to exercise federal judicial jurisdiction. This means, practically, that a federal court does not and cannot exercise State powers. The converse also is true: no State court can exercise federal powers, unless granted those powers by the Constitution, a treaty, or an act of Congress; but a State court exercising any federal powers, is thereby a federal court. The Constitution provides that the judges in every State shall be bound by the supreme law of the land, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. This solemn oath of State judges to support the Constitution as the supreme law gives them jurisdiction “to say what the law is,”[264] and howsoever rarely they may exercise the power vested in them to do so, State judges may take judicial notice of any law, State or federal, as harmonizing or conflicting with the Constitution; this means that a State court may pronounce an act of Congress unconstitutional, but the decision of that court is not final: there is but one Supreme Court of the United States.[265] 108. Territorial courts are to be distinguished from courts of the United States. They are not federal courts as are the Supreme Court and the inferior courts, namely, the Circuit Courts, the District Courts, or the Court of Claims. Neither are they State courts. The Constitution being made only for the people of the United States,—that is, for the people of the United States inhabiting States,[266] does not apply or extend to the territories unless extended by act of Congress. The courts in a territory are created by Congress and have such powers (or jurisdiction) as the act creating them provides. But in creating them, Congress is limited by the Constitution.[267] Congress also creates courts martial, but the jurisdiction of these courts is always subject to inquiry by civil courts. Fundamentally, the reason here is the supremacy of the civil over the military authority in the American system of government. 109. A problem not infrequently arising in courts of law is the solution of some political question involved. All political questions are questions for the political department of the government to settle; they lie wholly outside of the jurisdiction of the courts. Thus the courts never decide as to the wisdom or folly of an executive or legislative act,—and in one form or another, every act of Congress or President is politically wise or unwise according to the political belief of the critic. Nor do the debates over an act fix the meaning of the act, with the court. Where the court was asked to refer to the debates in Congress to determine the meaning of the act, it was said: