Of American-English origin, the phrase kangaroo court denotes a mock court that disregards or parodies existing principles of law; also any tribunal in which judgment is rendered arbitrarily or unfairly.
This phrase occurs, for example, in ‘Parliamentary witch-hunt’: what Johnson’s allies said about the Partygate inquiry, by Aubrey Allegretti, senior political correspondent, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Thursday 29th June 2023:
Nadine Dorries on TalkTV, 23 March 2023
“I don’t think there was ever a world in which this committee was going to find Boris innocent. The committee have demonstrated very clearly that they have decided early on to find him guilty. The committee knew that they had not a shred of evidence to prove that he misled with intent. They changed the rules, lowered the bar and inserted the vague term reckless into the terms of reference. Boris Johnson will be found guilty by this kangaroo court. There is no doubt about that and that in itself will be a disgraceful and possibly unlawful conclusion with serious reputational consequences.”
In the following, I will not discuss the origin of this phrase, but merely present the earliest occurrences that I have found of kangaroo court, of its synonym mustang court, and of kangaroo inquest:
1-: From the account of a debate which took place in the Senate of the Republic of Texas on Friday 20th December 1839, published in the Austin City Gazette (Austin, Texas) of Wednesday 25th March 1840:
The Report of the Judiciary Committee, recommending the passage of a bill to repeal certain acts therein named, was read 2nd time, and adopted; and when the act had received its 2nd reading,
Mr. Moore observed, that he should not vote for a bill which appeared, at one fell sweep, to abolish so many highly useful statutes; and said the Senate had amended with a clause that would include them all, and do a wholesale business at once.
Mr. Jones, of Austin, said, for want of information, he should move to lay the bill and report on the table; to which,
Mr. Jones, of Brazoria, replied, that the committee on the Judiciary had referred to the statute books; and if gentlemen would do so, they would find an act authorizing the President to receive 40,000 volunteers; an act creating the celebrated Auditorial Court—or “Mustang Court,” as it had been very properly called; and enough of other resolutions, acts and laws, equally as useless and odious; to convince them of the errors into which they had fallen. There was one of a very special objectionable character; it is that authorizing the Executive to issue an amount of money not limited, either ten thousand or ten millions, as His Excellency might think proper. He could not believe gentlemen sincere in adhering to principles so adverse to common understanding and common interest, and therefore begged that the bill might pass.
2-: From The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) of Tuesday 24th August 1841:
Don’t Comprehend.—The Concordia Intelligencer 1 says “several loafers were lynched in Natchez last week upon various charges instituted by the Kangaroo court. The times grow warm; we can see another storm coming, not unlike that which prevailed in the days of the Murrel excitement. In Natchez, as in New Orleans, they are driving away all the free negroes.” What is a Kangaroo court, neighbor?
1 This refers to the Concordia intelligencer (Vidalia, Parish of Concordia, Louisiana), to which I unfortunately do not have access.
3-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Pennings and Pilferings, published in the Mississippi Democrat (Carrollton, Mississippi) of Wednesday 23rd April 1845:
On the night after the adjournment of the Circuit Court, a grand Kangaroo Inquest was organized at the court-house, and a subject arraigned in the person of an itinerant exterminator of corns, and vender of a patent remedy for tooth-ache. The “subject” was “highly impressable,” as the mesmerists say, and the scene is said to have been indescribably rich. We shall regret having missed it during the remainder of our natural life.
4-: From The Mississippian (Jackson, Mississippi) of Friday 12th January 1849:
For the Mississippian.
Kosciusko, Miss., Dec. 1, 1848.
Messrs. Editors:—I have never been desirous of making myself conspicuous in newspaper discussions, but with your permission, I will occupy a small space in your paper, in order to expose the shallow meddlings of your federal contemporary, the Southron. It is truly amusing to observe with what sang froid eagerness the editors of that paper descend from the honorable station which they disgrace, to dabble in matters, with the character and importance of which they are entirely ignorant. They spread their wings and plume their feathers with about the same dignity, or rather pomposity, that would mark the endeavor of a turkey-buzzard to imitate the carriage of the sky-soaring eagle.
In that paper of Nov. 24, I read an extract or two, prefaced and concluded with editorial comments, under the flaming caption of “Political Intolerance,” taken from a communication which lately appeared in the Sentinel and Pilot, a paper published in this place. The readers of the Southron, if not enlightened by a statement of facts, would very naturally conclude that the meeting referred to in the article in question, was a democratic meeting, gotten up in good faith, for the purpose of proscribing members of the party who voted for Taylor. If the Southron’s article was really a true statement, there is no person who would sooner or more sincerely deprecate the conduct of those engaged in the “proscription meeting” than myself; but there is not a particle of truth in it which is not distorted by false coloring. If the affair was what it is represented to have been in the Southron, why did not the Kosciusko Chronicles [sic], a whig paper published in the town where it transpired, expose it? The reason is obvious. But to the facts.
On the evening succeeding the election, a meeting was gotten up some what in imitation of a “Kangaroo Court,” for the purpose of trying three individuals, (not all who had voted for Taylor,) on charges preferred, that one of them, H——, is ever loudest to proclaim his democratic sentiments, but has never been known to vote for one of the party for any office, from President down. Another T——, had come under the dominion of petticoat government, and bartered his vote for a smile from the object of his adoration. The charge against the third was equally serious and important. With this weight of business before it, the court was organized, and proceeded to try, find guilty, and condemn the culprits. I will just add this explanation, that those who engaged in the meeting, did so incited by no other feelings than a love of sport.
The Southron must be hard run indeed to pick up affairs of this kind for the purpose of making political capital out of them, and not only that, but destitute of all political honesty to thus impose upon its readers, by charging upon the democratic party the acts of a meeting so organized. If the meeting had really been one for carrying out a system of political intolerance, as the Southron gravely proclaims to its readers, the Kosciusko Chronicle would not have remained silent. Will the Southron disabuse the minds of its readers?
W. P. ANDREWS.
5-: From Drafts at Sight on the Southwest. VIII. Term-Time in the Backwoods, and a Mestang Court 2, published in The Literary World. A Journal of American and Foreign Literature, Science, and Art (New York City, New York) of Saturday 20th July 1850:
One of the principal amusements of the bar during these sessions of the court, is to assemble in some sufficiently capacious room, after indulging in all the boyish games that occur to them, to institute mock proceedings against some one of their number, for some ridiculous, imaginary offence.
One of these “circuit evenings” is very green in my memory—and I do not ever remember to have laughed so long or so heartily before or since, as I did then, at seeing the wisest and most intelligent men in the county entering with perfectly childish enjoyment and abandon, into childish jokes and childish games.
The scene was a log hut, containing one room and some dozen beds, upon which, lying, sitting, or in an intermediate posture, were at least thirty members of the courts.
After playing “Simon,” “What is my Thought Like?” and a dozen similar games, one of the company arose and announced in a most funereal tone that a member of the bar had—he deeply and sincerely regretted to state—been guilty of a most aggravated offence against decency, and the dignity of his profession, and he therefore moved that a Judge be appointed and the case regularly inquired into.
By an unanimous vote, Judge G.—the fattest and funniest of the assembly—was elected to the bench, and the “Mestang” or “Kangaroo Court” regularly organized. […]
[…]
THE INDICTMENT.
The Mestang Republic.
Kangaroo, to wit:—At the special court of Kangaroo county, begun and holden in the very extensive city of Kangaroo, to wit: One old shed for a court-house, two taverns such as they are, one blacksmith shop, with a post-office attachment, six groceries which we mean to leave as dry as an old maid’s lips, five banks (faro), and nothing else. On the last Tuesday of pea time, and Anno Domini, not a soul of us can distinctly remember, having very lately dined, although the last is of very little consequence:
The Jurors for the Mustang Republic on their oath, present that John Smith, of no particular place, calling himself a gentleman, although no one believes him, did […] inflict upon the right cheek of certain juvenile female colored person, of the age of seventy—there or thereabouts, known to the community in general, as Polly, a kiss of about the size of a dollar, or perhaps a dollar and a half, or perhaps two dollars, thereby injuring the feelings, compromising the character, and undermining the health of the said “Polly.”
2 This was the eighth instalment of the depiction of Texas that would appear in book form under the title of A Stray Yankee in Texas (New York: Redfield, 1853), by ‘Philip Paxton’, i.e., the U.S. humorist Samuel Adams Hammett (1816-1865).
6-: From the column Our Town and County, edited at Anderson, Grimes County, Texas, published in the Texas State Gazette (Austin, Texas) of Saturday 15th March 1851—reprinted from the Texas Ranger (Washington, Texas):
We have an institution of learning here in which all the branches of a polite and accomplished education are taught with “ease and elegance,” and our sons and daughters provided with what will be of more value to them in after years than silver or gold. We have, too, a nondescript court, at which his honor Judge D. weekly presides with a great deal of dignity and grace (grease)—, yclept the kangaroo court, where some amusing scenes occur, and strange decisions are made, some of which I will endeavor to give to the readers of the Ranger in some subsequent number. Amongst its most striking peculiarities, however, may be mentioned the fact that the Judge often lays aside the ermine, and engages in the prosecution, afterwards acting as both judge and jury, gives in his decisions, (from which, by the way, no appeal is allowable,) and then enforces it. No “nolles” are ever entered in this court, and woe be unto the man whose rights are adjudicated in it, for bills of exception, writs of error, and such things, are unknown in its proceedings, and the unhappy wight is forced to fork over so soon as the decision is made.
7-: From Backwoods Scenes; Or, Reminiscences of Early Times in Texas. No. 1. A “New Comer” in a Tight Place, by Sylvester Silversight, published in the Galveston Weekly News (Galveston, Texas) of Tuesday 1st April 1851—“casting a retrospective glance over the early history of Texas”, the author recounts that, “sometime in the year 1831, or ’32”, a wealthy young man arrived in the town of San Felipe de Austin:
He had not been in that famous little town more than a day or two, ere he began to “show his feathers”—to “spludge,” with such a [“looseness”?] as had never before been witnessed by the rustic pioneers of Austin’s Colony.
“We must take that lad down a buttonhole or two lower. We must show him the varmint!”—said Old Buck, to a merry crowd of San Felipeans, who had assembled, as was usual in the afternoon, when there was no “Indian excitement, or anything so, at what was familiarly denominated “Head Quarters”—Tom G——’s bar and billiard room.
“Take him down? Show him the varmint? Yes, by G—d! we’ll introduce him to the Kangaroo!” exclaimed the gruff, but, at times jocose old Captain Leathershirt.
There was much of truth in the remarks of the old Captain: for, on the very next day—all things necessary for the occasion having been arranged—the young gentleman was, in the most formal manner, shown the varmint—“introduced to the Kangaroo.” So that our readers may understand what was meant by the allusion to the Kangaroo, we will state that the San Felipeans had regularly organized a mock tribunal, called—a very uncouth appellation, by the bye—the “Supreme Kangaroo Court of San Felipe.” It was to this court that young Spindleshanks was introduced.
8-: From The Weekly Journal (Galveston, Texas) of Friday 18th June 1852:
The Brazos Delta in speaking of the irregularity of the mails says:
We have had one regular mail in succession, within the last six weeks. It is understood that Judge Foster will hold a Kangaroo Court, to try the Houston mail driver for contempt of Judge Kangaroo the first time he brings through a regular New Orleans mail.”
The following are some additional early occurrences of the phrase mustang court:
1-: From The Suppression of the Frankfort Convention, published in The Indiana State Sentinel (Indianapolis, Indiana) of Monday 2nd March 1863—reprinted from the Louisville Democrat (Louisville, Kentucky):
We are subjugated and crushed; our Legislature is an empty, vaporing debating society; our courts are mere mustang courts, without the fun that enlivens them.
2-: From The Norfolk Post (Norfolk, Virginia) of Thursday 5th October 1865:
Bold Adventure by a Votary of Apollo.—A few nights since a party of young men, on their return from a gay and festive scene, were struck by the suspicious movements of another party, which were loitering around the residence of one of our opulent bankers. As so many robberies had been committed of late, the leader of the young men, a valiant descendant of the race that conquered the Danes, proposed that the suspicious party should be watched. As leader of the party, he made his arrangements accordingly, and threw out his scouts to reconnoitre the apparent burglars. Young Apollo was assigned an important position; he had not been long on post before he gave the alarm, and reinforcements were sent, which alarmed the party watched, and they ran. This naturally enraged the brave leader of the young men, and Apollo was reprimanded. Being only a conscript, he excused himself by saying he distinctly heard a pistol cocked, and he was afraid he might be shot unless he alarmed the suspicious party. Apollo was put under arrest for neglect of duty, charges prefered [sic] in accordance with facts, and a mustang court summoned at the Club House of Marston & Meek, where, after a patient hearing of the evidence adduced, the delinquent votary of Apollo was found guilty, and sentenced to ask credit for the creature comforts which would satisfy the court, and to play on the trombone six hours a day until the expiration of his term of enlistment. When last heard from he was carrying out the trombone sentence of the court, playing a solo which was heard all over the neighborhood, much to the annoyance of slumbering babes and nervous ladies. Just imagine the surprise of Apollo, when, in the sympathetic part of “Rest in Peace,” constable Byatt broke in upon him, and ordered the votary, in a voice of thunder, “to stop that infernal noise.” Indignant votary, with the air of Rosene in a play, perfectly dumbfounded at first, at last caught breath, and pitched into Dogberry as follows: “Noise, sir! noise, sir! I’ll have you to know that sweeter harmony from that instrument than I can get has never been heard by mortal ear. Without fully appreciating the merits of my touch, you are no judge, sir; ask Whiddon, Thalberg, or any other man.” The gentlemanly officer introduced himself as constable Byatt, and at the express request of the neighbors, was sent in to know “what you are at, sir?” Says votary: “Carrying out the sentence of the court.” “Oh! excuse me,” said Byatt, “I thought you were trying to blow your brains out.” Exit Byatt in a hurry, followed by enraged votary, hollowing at the pitch of his pleasant voice: “Do you take me for a fool?” “No,” said Byatt, “but I’ll take you to Joynes’ retreat, if you do not quit making that infernal noise, and alarming the whole neighborhood.” Votary subsided. We learn he has preferred charges against Byatt to the town pump for not knocking before he came in—a clear case of trespass. We wish it distinctly understood that our young Apollo is a strong water man, and has no taste for Pulagaroo. Since his narrow escape from the burglars he has joined the reserve corps, which will only be called out when there is no shooting to be done. Brave Apollo!
3-: From A History of Stockton from its organization up to the present time (San Francisco: W. M. Hinton & Co., 1880), by George Henry Tinkham (1849-?):
During the first ten years of our history as a state men were mobbed and hung by the scores. In the year 1855 forty-seven men were hanged by mob law, more than half the number for stealing in the mountain towns. In the opinion of many the officers of justice were in league either with the mob or with the criminal, as the case might be.
These mobs, when courts of law would not accede to their demands, established courts of their own and administered punishment as they saw fit. We cite one case occurring a few days after the arrest of the horse thieves, showing the way in which Judge Lynch disposes of those persons that he believes injurious to society. It will be remembered that the man Wilson was found at the house of one Russell, on the Peninsula, and the mob, judging this man Russell to be a character obnoxious to society, proceeded to organize a court and try this man on general principles. When the court was called to order, they selected Captain Chapman as sheriff, and Captain A. Bell as prosecuting attorney in the case. The sheriff brought Russell into court. Russell was a “Sydney Duck.” His Honor Judge Owens informed the accused that he was before a Mustang Court, and that what he had to say should be said quickly and to the point. He stated that he had been in Stockton but a few weeks; that he and his wife had kept a house of ill repute; that he did not know the men who had been arrested, nor did he know them to be professional horse thieves; that he did not know why they should prefer his house to any other; that he came to this country to make money honestly. At this stage of the proceedings the Judge asked if the jury had been polled, when a bystander remarked that “he thought there was timber enough in him and the crowd without any polls,” and he moved that Russell be ducked in the slough. The prisoner was then seized and taken to the water on the levee and thrown in. After swimming out he was again thrown in. Sheriff Ashe appeared upon the scene and rescued the prisoner from the hands of the infuriated mob, and carried him to the jail, but considering that Russell’s safety depended in locking him up in jail he was brought over, when the jury of the Mustang Court rendered a verdict that he be well whipped, which sentence was carried out. He was then given sixteen hours in which to leave town.
Finally, kangaroo courts and inquests occurs in one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column City Local News, published in the San Antonio Daily Light (San Antonio, Texas) of Monday 23rd June 1890:
—A jolly crowd of picnicers held forth at the head of the Salado, above the target range, yesterday. Snake bite and snake stories, melons and jokes, kangaroo courts and inquests were the order of the day.
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