T. M. v. University of Md. Medical System Corporation · ¶70

On the facts of the case, the exercise of jurisdiction was original in nature. There was no decision of another court that this Court could revise. Chief Justice Marshall recognized that it “is the essential criterion of appellate jurisdiction, that it revises and corrects the proceedings in a cause already instituted.” Ibid. To issue mandamus “to an officer for the delivery of a paper, is in effect the same as to sustain an original action for that paper, and therefore seems not to belong to appellate, but to original jurisdiction.” Id., at 175–176; accord, ante, at 10.

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