Fisk v. Jefferson Police Jury

Citations

• 116 U.S. 131
• 6 S. Ct. 329
• 29 L. Ed. 587
• 1885 U.S. LEXIS 1899

Syllabus

<p>Where a law attaches a fixed compensation to a public office during the whole term of service of a person legally filling the office and performing the duties thereof, a perfect implied obligation arises to pay for the services at the fixed rate, to be enforced by the remedies which the laws then give ; and a change in the State Constitution which takes away then existing powers of taxation so as to deprive the officer Of the means of collecting his compensation is. within the prohibitory clause in the Constitution forbidding the passage of State laws impairing the obligation of contracts.</p> <p>The prohibition of the Constitution against State laws impairing the obligation of contracts applies to implied as well as to express contracts.</p>