THE EFFECT OF THE CONTRACT CLAUSE AND THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT UPON THE POWER OF THE STATES TO CONTROL MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS

Authors

E. B. Schulz, Lehigh University

Abstract

Although the power to establish systems of local government is reserved to the states under the Federal Constitution, they are obliged to exercise it in conformity with the limitations, direct or indirect, by which their powers in general are circumscribed. Since a state lacks authority to delegate powers which it does not possess, it may not confer upon municipal corporations, to cite but a few examples, the power to pass ex post facto laws and bills of attainder, to coin money, to emit bills of credit, to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, or to levy taxes for strictly private purposes. This limitation upon the competence of a state to grant powers to local units of government is a principle of constitutional law so firmly established that it may be described as axiomatic. Such is not the case, however, with regard to the extent to which the power to control municipal corporations in other ways, namely, to interfere in their affairs, to deprive them of their property, to curtail their powers, or to dissolve them, is affected by provisions of the Federal Constitution designed primarily to prevent the states from encroaching upon the rights of individuals. Of particular importance are the clauses forbidding the states to pass laws impairing the obligation of contracts, to deprive persons of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, and to deny to any persons within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Recommended Citation

E. B. Schulz, THE EFFECT OF THE CONTRACT CLAUSE AND THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT UPON THE POWER OF THE STATES TO CONTROL MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS, 36 Mich. L. Rev. 395 (1938).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol36/iss3/3