Stewart v. City of Kansas

Citations

• 239 U.S. 14
• 36 S. Ct. 15
• 60 L. Ed. 120
• 1915 U.S. LEXIS 1517

Syllabus

<p>What the duty of a county officer .is under the law of the State of which he is an instrument is a local question and this court has no jurisdiction under § 237, Judicial Code, to review the judgment of the state court.</p> <p>A county officer has no personal interest in a litigation brought to compel him to apply public moneys in his hands in accordance with the state law, and he cannot defend such a suit on the ground that the statute is unconstitutional as depriving him as an individual or as a taxpayer of his property without due process of law or denying him the equal protection of the law.</p> <p>Municipalities of the State are creatures of the State and the power of the State thereover is very broad and may be exercised in many ways affecting the property of, and giving rise to inequalities between, municipalities without encountering the due process and equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.</p> <p>The statute of Kansas requiring counties to reimburse municipalities of the first class, but not of other classes, for rebates allowed for prompt payment of taxes is not unconstitutional under the due process or equal protection provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment.</p>