The All Writs Act is a United States federal statute, codified at 28 U.S.C. ยง 1651, which authorizes the United States federal courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the usages and principles of law."
The act in its original form was part of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The current form of the act was first passed in 1911 and the act was amended several times since then.
Famous quotes containing the words writs and/or act:
“I spent my life mixin’ with your breed, and I don’t like it. Get me. You can hide behind a lot of red tape, crooked lawyers and politicians with the gimmes, writs of habeas corpus, witnesses that don’t remember overnight, but we’ll get through to you, just like we got all the rest.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)
“Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide,
In thy most need to go by thy side.”
—Anonymous. Knowledge, in Everyman, act 1, l. 522 (c. 1509-1519)