opinion: UNITED STATES v. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK et al.
  No. 527.
  Argued April 19-20, 1948.
  Decided May 24, 1948.
  Leonard J. Emmerglick argued the cause for the United States. With him on the brief were Solicitor General Perlman, Assistant Attorney General Sonnett and Robert L. Stern.
  William Watson Smith argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief were Frank B. Ingersoll, Leon E. Hickman, Charles E. Hughes, Jr. and L. Homer Surbeck.
  Mr. Justice Douglas
  delivered the opinion of the Court.
  The United States brought a proceeding against the .Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and others to prevent and restrain certain violations of the Sherman Act. 26 Stat. 209, as amended, 15 U. S. C. §§ 1, 2, 4. After trial the District Court dismissed the complaint. 44 F. Supp. 97. The case came here by appeal, after which we ascertained that due to the disqualification of four Justices to sit in the case, we were without a quorum. Accordingly, we transferred the case to a special docket and postponed further proceedings in it until such time as there was a quorum of Justices qualified to sit in it. 320 U. S. 708. Thereafter Congress amended the statute which provides for a direct appeal to this Court from the District Court in antitrust cases. The Act of June 9, 1944, c. 239, 58 Stat. 272,15 U. S. C. (Supp. V, 1946) § 29, passed to meet the contingency of the lack of a quorum here, provides:
  “In every suit in equity brought in any district court of the United States under any of said Acts, wherein the United States is complainant, an appeal from the final decree of the district court will lie only to the Supreme Court and must be taken within sixty days from the entry thereof: Provided, however, That if, upon any such appeal, it shall be found that, by reason of disqualification, there shall not be a quorum of Justices of the Supreme Court qualified to participate in the consideration of the case on the merits, then, in lieu of a decision by the Supreme Court, the case shall be immediately certified by the Supreme Court to the circuit court of appeals of the circuit in which is located the district in which the suit was brought which court shall thereupon have jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal in such case, and it shall be the duty of the senior circuit judge of said circuit court of appeals, qualified to participate in the consideration of the case on the merits, to designate immediately three circuit judges of said court, one of whom shall be himself and the other two of whom shall be the two circuit judges next in order of seniority to himself, to hear and determine the appeal in such case and it shall be the duty of the court, so comprised, to assign the case for argument at the earliest practicable date and to hear and determine the same, and the decision of the three circuit judges so designated, or of a majority in number thereof, shall.be final and there shall be no review of such decision by appeal or certiorari or otherwise.
  “If, by reason of disqualification, death or otherwise, any of said three circuit judges shall be unable to participate in the decision of said case, any such vacancy or vacancies shall be filled by the senior circuit judge by designating one or more other circuit judges of the said circuit next in order of seniority and, if there be none such available, he shall fill any such vacancy or vacancies by designating one or more circuit judges from another circuit or circuits, designating, in each case, the oldest available circuit judge, in order of seniority, in the circuit from which he is selected, such designation to be only with the consent of the senior circuit judge of any such other circuit.
  “This Act shall apply to every case pending before the Supreme Court of the United States on the date of its enactment.”
  Thereupon we certified the cause to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 322 U. S. 716. That court heard the case, sustained charges of monopoly against Alcoa, reversed the judgment of dismissal, and remanded the cause for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion. 148 F. 2d 416. It left open the question of the remedies to be applied. Nearly five years had passed since the evidence was closed, war had intervened, new plants had been constructed by the government, and their disposition under the Surplus Property Act of 1944, 68 Stat. 765, 50 U. S. C. A. § 1611, would affect the competitive situation in the ingot market. Petitioner had asked for Alcoa’s dissolution. But that question was deferred until Alcoa’s position in the industry after the war was known. 148 F. 2d pp. 445-447.
  On remand of the cause the District Court entered its judgment on the mandate on April 23,1946. It enjoined certain practices and retained jurisdiction of the cause until after the Surplus Property Administrator shall have proposed a plan for disposition of the government-owned aluminum plants or facilities, in order that the Attorney General might institute proceedings for the dissolution or partial dissolution of Alcoa or for the enforcement of such plan if it will establish competitive conditions in the industry or for such other relief as will establish them; “and for the purpose of enabling Aluminum Company to apply to this court for a determination of the question whether it still has a monopoly of the aluminum ingot market in the United States.”
  Pursuant to the quoted provision Alcoa filed a petition in the District Court praying that a final judgment be entered adjudicating that it no longer has a monopoly of the aluminum ingot market in the United States and that as a consequence competitive conditions in the industry have been restored. The motion of the United States to dismiss the petition was denied and the question whether Alcoa still had a monopoly was set for trial. The United States thereupon filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the Circuit Court of Appeals to require the district judge to vacate so much of its judgment of April 23, 1946, as reserved jurisdiction to enable Alcoa to apply for a determination whether it still has a monopoly, and to dismiss the petition of Alcoa.
  The Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the petition for mandamus. 164 F. 2d 159. The case is here on a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted to settle the important question under the Act.
  The Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that its power to issue the writ of mandamus exists only as an incident to its jurisdiction to entertain an appeal from a judgment of the District Court. It read the Act of June 9,1944, as confining its jurisdiction to the determination of the appeal which it had heard under our certificate. Moreover, control over its mandate ended with the end of the term during which the mandate went down. The court therefore concluded that it had no power to issue the writ.
  We put to one side the question whether another appeal in the case would be decided by the Circuit Court of Appeals or by this Court, now that there is a quorum of Justices qualified to sit in it. No matter how that question were resolved, it is our opinion that the Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction in this mandamus proceeding.
  Section 262 of the Judicial Code, 28 U. S. C. § 377, provides that the federal courts “shall have power to issue all writs not specifically provided for by statute, which may be necessary for the exercise of their respective jurisdictions, and agreeable to the usages and principles of law.” It was early recognized that the power to issue a mandamus extended to cases where its issuance was either an exercise of appellate jurisdiction or in aid of appellate jurisdiction. See Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 175; Ex parte Crane, 5 Pet. 190. That power protects the appellate jurisdiction which might be otherwise defeated and extends to support an ultimate power of review, though it not be immediately and directly involved. McClellan v. Carland, 217 U. S. 268. Ex parte United States, 287 U. S. 241, 246. In that category will often fall cases involving issuance of mandamus requiring the lower court to enforce the judgment of the appellate court. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co. v. Rellstab, 276 U. S. 1, 5.
  But the fact that mandamus is closely connected with the appellate power does not necessarily mean that the power to issue it is absent where there is no existing or future appellate jurisdiction to which it can relate. Cf. Chickaming v. Carpenter, 106 U. S. 663, 665. In re Washington & Georgetown R. Co., 140 U. S. 91, is a case in point. The lower court in violation of the mandate of this Court allowed interest on a judgment. The amount of the interest was too small to be the subject of a writ of error from this Court. It was held that mandamus was the proper remedy to enforce compliance with the mandate. And see City Bank v. Hunter, 152 U. S. 512, 515. It is, indeed, a high function of mandamus to keep a lower tribunal from interposing unauthorized obstructions to enforcement of a judgment of a higher court. Delaware, L. & W. R. Co. v. Rellstab, supra. That function may be as important in protecting a past exercise of jurisdiction as in safeguarding a present or future one. When Congress authorized “the case” to be certified to the Circuit Court of Appeals, it excepted none of the powers of that court which might be brought to bear on the litigation. Those powers include the power to issue mandamus to protect the mandate of the Circuit Court of Appeals, even though we assume arguendo that all further appeals in the case would come here.
  The Circuit Court of Appeals seems to have been influenced to the other view by the feeling, that the question presented by the mandamus cuts so wide a swathe in the litigation that it should hold its hand. Its position was that the issue raised by the petition for mandamus had an important relation to the reserved problem of dissolution, that the judgment on dissolution would in its view eventually come here on appeal, that any ruling by it on the mandamus would therefore limit our freedom to deal with the dissolution issue as, if, and when it got here.
  Those considerations may be of large importance in the totality of this proceeding, once we accept the premise of the Circuit Court of Appeals that it will have nothing to do with any other appeals in the case. But they do not seem to us germane to the question whether the Circuit Court of Appeals has the power to enforce obedience to its mandate. We think the Act of June 9, 1944, gave the Circuit Court of Appeals the full amplitude of judicial power to deal with the cause which we certified. That power does not contract with the importance or gravity of the question presented. The power to compel obedience with the mandate turns on whether the lower court has obstructed enforcement of it, not on the collateral repercussions which enforcement may entail.
  Reversed.
  Mr. Justice Murphy and Mr. Justice Jackson took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
  See H. R. Rep. No. 1317, 78th Cong., 2d Sess.;"Sen. Rep. No. 890, 78th Cong., 2d Sess.
  The term of court in which the mandate issued expired September 30, 1945, on which day the court lost power to change it except as to matters of form. See Fairmont Creamery Co. v. Minnesota, 275 U. S. 70.
choices: U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals U.S. Court of International Trade U.S. Court of Claims, Court of Federal Claims U.S. Court of Military Appeals, renamed as Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces U.S. Court of Military Review U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals U.S. Customs Court U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit U.S. Tax Court Temporary Emergency U.S. Court of Appeals U.S. Court for China U.S. Consular Courts U.S. Commerce Court Territorial Supreme Court Territorial Appellate Court Territorial Trial Court Emergency Court of Appeals Supreme Court of the District of Columbia Bankruptcy Court U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit (includes the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia but not the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which has local jurisdiction) Alabama Middle U.S. District Court Alabama Northern U.S. District Court Alabama Southern U.S. District Court Alaska U.S. District Court Arizona U.S. District Court Arkansas Eastern U.S. District Court Arkansas Western U.S. District Court California Central U.S. District Court California Eastern U.S. District Court California Northern U.S. District Court California Southern U.S. District Court Colorado U.S. District Court Connecticut U.S. District Court Delaware U.S. District Court District Of Columbia U.S. District Court Florida Middle U.S. District Court Florida Northern U.S. District Court Florida Southern U.S. District Court Georgia Middle U.S. District Court Georgia Northern U.S. District Court Georgia Southern U.S. District Court Guam U.S. District Court Hawaii U.S. District Court Idaho U.S. District Court Illinois Central U.S. District Court Illinois Northern U.S. District Court Illinois Southern U.S. District Court Indiana Northern U.S. District Court Indiana Southern U.S. District Court Iowa Northern U.S. District Court Iowa Southern U.S. District Court Kansas U.S. District Court Kentucky Eastern U.S. District Court Kentucky Western U.S. District Court Louisiana Eastern U.S. District Court Louisiana Middle U.S. District Court Louisiana Western U.S. District Court Maine U.S. District Court Maryland U.S. District Court Massachusetts U.S. District Court Michigan Eastern U.S. District Court Michigan Western U.S. District Court Minnesota U.S. District Court Mississippi Northern U.S. District Court Mississippi Southern U.S. District Court Missouri Eastern U.S. District Court Missouri Western U.S. District Court Montana U.S. District Court Nebraska U.S. District Court Nevada U.S. District Court New Hampshire U.S. District Court New Jersey U.S. District Court New Mexico U.S. District Court New York Eastern U.S. District Court New York Northern U.S. District Court New York Southern U.S. District Court New York Western U.S. District Court North Carolina Eastern U.S. District Court North Carolina Middle U.S. District Court North Carolina Western U.S. District Court North Dakota U.S. District Court Northern Mariana Islands U.S. District Court Ohio Northern U.S. District Court Ohio Southern U.S. District Court Oklahoma Eastern U.S. District Court Oklahoma Northern U.S. District Court Oklahoma Western U.S. District Court Oregon U.S. District Court Pennsylvania Eastern U.S. District Court Pennsylvania Middle U.S. District Court Pennsylvania Western U.S. District Court Puerto Rico U.S. District Court Rhode Island U.S. District Court South Carolina U.S. District Court South Dakota U.S. District Court Tennessee Eastern U.S. District Court Tennessee Middle U.S. District Court Tennessee Western U.S. District Court Texas Eastern U.S. District Court Texas Northern U.S. District Court Texas Southern U.S. District Court Texas Western U.S. District Court Utah U.S. District Court Vermont U.S. District Court Virgin Islands U.S. District Court Virginia Eastern U.S. District Court Virginia Western U.S. District Court Washington Eastern U.S. District Court Washington Western U.S. District Court West Virginia Northern U.S. District Court West Virginia Southern U.S. District Court Wisconsin Eastern U.S. District Court Wisconsin Western U.S. District Court Wyoming U.S. District Court Louisiana U.S. District Court Washington U.S. District Court West Virginia U.S. District Court Illinois Eastern U.S. District Court South Carolina Eastern U.S. District Court South Carolina Western U.S. District Court Alabama U.S. District Court U.S. District Court for the Canal Zone Georgia U.S. District Court Illinois U.S. District Court Indiana U.S. District Court Iowa U.S. District Court Michigan U.S. District Court Mississippi U.S. District Court Missouri U.S. District Court New Jersey Eastern U.S. District Court (East Jersey U.S. District Court) New Jersey Western U.S. District Court (West Jersey U.S. District Court) New York U.S. District Court North Carolina U.S. District Court Ohio U.S. District Court Pennsylvania U.S. District Court Tennessee U.S. District Court Texas U.S. District Court Virginia U.S. District Court Norfolk U.S. District Court Wisconsin U.S. District Court Kentucky U.S. Distrcrict Court New Jersey U.S. District Court California U.S. District Court Florida U.S. District Court Arkansas U.S. District Court District of Orleans U.S. District Court State Supreme Court State Appellate Court State Trial Court Eastern Circuit (of the United States) Middle Circuit (of the United States) Southern Circuit (of the United States) Alabama U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of Alabama Arkansas U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of Arkansas California U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of California Connecticut U.S. Circuit for the District of Connecticut Delaware U.S. Circuit for the District of Delaware Florida U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Florida Georgia U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Georgia Illinois U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Illinois Indiana U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Indiana Iowa U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Iowa Kansas U.S. Circuit for the District of Kansas Kentucky U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Kentucky Louisiana U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Louisiana Maine U.S. Circuit for the District of Maine Maryland U.S. Circuit for the District of Maryland Massachusetts U.S. Circuit for the District of Massachusetts Michigan U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Michigan Minnesota U.S. Circuit for the District of Minnesota Mississippi U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Mississippi Missouri U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Missouri Nevada U.S. Circuit for the District of Nevada New Hampshire U.S. Circuit for the District of New Hampshire New Jersey U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of New Jersey New York U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of New York North Carolina U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of North Carolina Ohio U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Ohio Oregon U.S. Circuit for the District of Oregon Pennsylvania U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Pennsylvania Rhode Island U.S. Circuit for the District of Rhode Island South Carolina U.S. Circuit for the District of South Carolina Tennessee U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Tennessee Texas U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Texas Vermont U.S. Circuit for the District of Vermont Virginia U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Virginia West Virginia U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of West Virginia Wisconsin U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Wisconsin Wyoming U.S. Circuit for the District of Wyoming Circuit Court of the District of Columbia Nebraska U.S. Circuit for the District of Nebraska Colorado U.S. Circuit for the District of Colorado Washington U.S. Circuit for (all) District(s) of Washington Idaho U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of Idaho Montana U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of Montana Utah U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of Utah South Dakota U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of South Dakota North Dakota U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of North Dakota Oklahoma U.S. Circuit Court for (all) District(s) of Oklahoma Court of Private Land Claims