Fitts v. McGhee

Citations

• 172 U.S. 516
• 19 S. Ct. 269
• 43 L. Ed. 535
• 1899 U.S. LEXIS 1394

Syllabus

<p>A suit brought by the receivers of a railroad against the Attorney General of the State of Alabama and the Solicitor of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of that State, to restrain them, as officers of the State, from taking steps to enforce against the complainants the provisions of a law of that State reducing the tolls which had been exacted of the public under a prior law for crossing on a bridge of the railroad over a river, is a suit against the State, and this court accordingly reverses the judgment of the court below, adjudging that the latter law was unconstitutional and void, and that the defendants should not institute or prosecute any indictment or criminal proceeding against any one for violating the provisions of that act, and directed the court below to dissolve its injunction restraining the institution or prosecution of indictments, or other criminal proceedings so instituted in the state courts, and to dismiss the suit so brought by the receivers against the Attorney General of Alabama and the Solicitor of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of that State.</p>