People ex rel. Klokke v. Wright

Citations

• 70 Ill. 388

Syllabus

<p>1. Commissioners of the board of police of the city of Chicago. The commissioners of the board of police of the city of Chicago are members of a board organized under an amendment of the charter of the city of Chicago, and are included in the first section of the act, in force July 1,1872, commonly known as the Mayors’ bill.</p> <p>2. The board is the creature of legislation, and the legislature can, in their discretion, provide how the commissioners shall be selected or appointed, and may change the mode from time to time, as the welfare of the city seems to demand.</p> <p>3. The rule ordinarily is, that where the right is once given to elect to a particular office, it is not subsequently withheld, and the office filled by appointment, yet this is but practice, that may be departed from, the constitution being silent on the subject, whenever the legislature sees fit so to do.</p> <p>4. The individual commissioner of the board of police, as such, possesses no official authority, and is not a city officer.</p> <p>5. Statute — whether it is an amendment of another act, unless so expressed in its title. The mere fact that an act does not, in its title, profess to amend a city charter, is unimportant; it is an amendment if it professes to, and does, enact that which makes new organic law for the city government.</p> <p>6. Constitutionality of the “Mayors' bill”— as embracing more than one subject. The Mayors’ bill is not in conflict with section 18, article 4, of the constitution, as embracing more than one subject; the entire act relates to a single general subject, which is sufficiently expressed in the title, namely: the duties of mayors in cities, and there is nothing incongruous in its different provisions.</p> <p>7. Constitutional law—mode of amending statutes. The clause of the constitution which says, “no law shall he revived or amended by reference to its title only, but the law revived, or the section amended, shall be inserted at length in the new act,” ca