City of Chicago v. McCoy

Citations

• 136 Ill. 344
• 11 L.R.A. 413

Syllabus

<p>1. City ordinances, etc.—publication—in the English language only —the statutes and constitution considered. The act of 1863, amendatory of the charter of the city of Chicago, leaving it to the discretion of the common council whether or not the .ordinances, etc., should be published in some newspaper printed in the German language, was, by necessary implication, repealed by the act of 1867, also amendatory of the city charter, which required such publication in a German newspaper.</p> <p>2. The peremptory requirement in the act of 1867 that publications should be made in a newspaper published in German having the largest daily circulation in the city, was repealed by the general Incorporation law of 1872.</p> <p>3. Clauses 94 and 96 of the general Incorporation law of 1872, speciflying the powers of the city council, are' to be read in the light of section 18 of the schedule of the constitution of 1870, which provides that all laws, etc., shall be published in no other than the English language.</p> <p>4. The matters required by the general City and Village Incorporation act to be published, are of such kind and character that they can not, in view of the constitutional prohibition, be published by a city organized thereunder, at the expense of the tax-payer, in any other than the English language.</p> <p>5. The word “published,” in section 18 of the constitution, which prohibits the publication of laws, etc., in any other than the English language, is used in its ordinary and usual acceptation, and is broad enough to, and does, include publications in newspapers, as well as-those in book or pamphlet form.</p> <p>6. Under the constitutional prohibition (sec. 18 of schedule), a city council has no power to provide, by ordinance or otherwise, for the publication of its ordinances or other proceedings, at the expense of its tax-payers, in any other than the English language, and if it attempts such publication it may be enjoined at the suit of any tax-payer.</p> <p