cases found that § 25 authority lacking without reaching the merits. In Rankin v. Tennessee (1870), the Court for the first time rejected a criminal appeal under § 25 due to a lack of finality of the state court judgment. And, in Ward v. Maryland (1870), the Court held that the advancement of such cases on the Court's calendar was purely discretionary. And, in Aicardi v. Alabama (1873), the Court held that it could not review a state court's interpretation of the state's criminal statutes or the consistency of such criminal statutes with the state's constitution. Nevertheless, In McGuire v. Massachusetts (1865) and Pervear v. Massachusetts (1866), the Court held that a federal liquor license does not grant immunity from prosecution under state liquor laws. And, in Cummings v. Missouri (1866), the Court reversed the conviction of a Catholic priest who had refused to take an anti-Confederacy loyalty oath as required by the Missouri constitution. But, in Klinger v. Missouri (1871), the Court permitted the exclusion of a criminal juror who had refused to take that oath; because the juror professed that he still supported the rebellion, that was reason enough to exclude him, and thus the failure to take the unconstitutional oath was not the reason for his exclusion. Territorial courts Like the Taney Court before it, the Chase Court entertained criminal appeals from the federal territorial courts. In United States v. Hart (1867), the Court held that a statute empowering a territorial court to hear revenue cases did not authorize the Court to try a criminal prosecution for treason. And, in Snow v. United States (1873), the Court held that the Attorney General of Utah, not the federal district attorney, had the authority to prosecute crime in the Utah territory. Habeas appeals The Supreme Court never had an opportunity to exercise the authority to hear appeals from habeas petitions in the circuit courts. In Ex parte McCardle (1867), the first such case, the Court denied a motion to dismiss, finding that it had such jurisdiction. William H. McCardle had been arrested by a military commission for violating the Military Reconstruction Act by publishing anti-Reconstruction editorials in the Vicksburg Times. Before the Court could reach the merits, Congress repealed said jurisdiction. In Ex parte McCardle (1869), the Court held that the repeal was a valid exercise of Congress's Exceptions Clause power. Original habeas In Ex parte Yerger (1868), the