Barnes v. District of Columbia
Decision Date | 01 October 1875 |
Citation | 91 U.S. 540,23 L.Ed. 440 |
Parties | BARNES v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
The municipal corporation, 'The District of Columbia,' was organized under the act of Congress of Feb. 21, 1871. 16 Stat. 419.
The first section of the act creates a municipal corporation by the name of 'The District of Columbia,' with power to sue, be sued, contract, have a seal, and 'exercise all other powers of a municipal corporation, not inconsistent with the laws and constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act.'
By sect. 2 the executive power is vested in a governor, to be appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate, and to hold his office for four years. Bills passed by the council, and house of delegates, were to be presented to him for approval or rejection.
A secretary of the District is also provided for, whose duties are specified. The legislative power in the District is vested in two bodies,—a council, and house of delegates,—called a legislative assembly; which power it was in the eighteenth section declared should 'extend to all rightful subjects of legislation within said District, consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act.'
It is enacted that the President, with the consent of the Senate, shall appoint a board of health, consisting of five persons, whose duties are pointed out. The salaries of the governor and secretary are prescribed, and are to be paid 'at the treasury of the United States.' The salaries of the members of the legislative assembly are prescribed; but it is not declared where or how or by whom they shall be paid, unless they are included in the general tersm of sect. 38.
By the thirty-seventh section it is provided that there shall be a 'board of public works, to consist of the governor and four other persons to be appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate, who shall have entire control of and make all regulations which they shall deem necessary for keeping in repair the streets, avenues, and alleys and sewers of the city, and all other works which may be intrusted to their charge by the legislative assembly or Congress.' They are also required to disburse the money collected for such purposes, and to make an annual report of their proceedings to the legislative assembly, and to furnish a duplicate of the same to the governor.
The charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown are declared to be repealed, except that they are continued in force for certain specified purposes not necessary to be here considered.
The statute creating this corporation, in its first section, declares it to be a body corporate, not only with power to contract, to sue and be sued, and to have a seal, but also that it is a body corporate for municipal purposes, and that it shall exercise all other powers of a municipal corporation, not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States and the provisions of this act.
A municipal corporation, in the exercise of all of its duties, including those most strictly local or internal, is but a department of the State. The legislature may give it all the powers such a being is capable of receiving, making it a miniature State within its locality. Again: it may strip it of every power, leaving it a corporation in name only; and it may create and recreate these changes as often as it chooses, or it may itself exercise directly within the locality any or all the powers usually committed to a municipality. We do not regard its acts as sometimes those of an agency of the State, and at others those of a municipality; but that, its character and nature remaining at all times the same, it is great or small according as the legislature shall extend or contract the sphere of its action.
In his work on Municipal Corporations (sect. 835), Judge Dillon says, ...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Carson v. City of Genesee
... ... (Syllabus ... by the court.) ... APPEAL ... from District Court in and for the County of Latah. Honorable ... E. C. Steele, Judge ... [9 ... ed., secs. 999, 1017; Beach on Public Corporations, secs ... 757, 759, 1494; Barnes v. District of Columbia, 91 ... U.S. 540, 23 L.Ed. 440; District of Columbia v ... Woodbury, ... ...
-
Ex parte Corliss
...32 Conn. 131;People v. Mahaney, 13 Mich. 481;People v. Shepard, 36 N. Y. 285;Town v. Jenkins, 57 N. Y. 177;Barnes v. Dist. of Columbia, 91 U. S. 540, 23 L. Ed. 440;State v. Covington, 29 Ohio St. 102;Pumphrey v. Mayor, etc., 47 Md. 145, 28 Am. Rep. 446;Burch v. Hardwicke, 30 Grat. (Va.) 24,......
-
City of Lafayette, Louisiana v. Louisiana Power Light Company
...151; The Mayor v. Ray, 19 Wall. 468, 475, 22 L.Ed. 164; Bradford v. Shreveport, 305 So.2d 487 (La.). 6.Cf. Barnes v. District of Columbia, 91 U.S. 540, 544-545, 23 L.Ed. 440; The Mayor v. Ray, supra, at 475; East Hartford v. Hartford Bridge Co., 10 How. 511, 13 L.Ed. 518. Under Louisiana la......
-
Bradshaw v. United States, 23126
...of Columbia, 256 U.S. 650, 41 S.Ct. 610, 65 L.Ed. 1146 (1921); Metropolitan R.R. v. District of Columbia, supra; Barnes v. District of Columbia, 91 U.S. 540, 23 L.Ed. 440 (1876). The United States is not liable for claims against the District. John McShain, Inc. v. United States, 375 F.2d 8......
-
How Devolved Is Too Devolved?: a Comparative Analysis Examining the Allocation of Power Between State and Local Government Through the Lens of the Confederate Monument Controversy
...1 (2001).30. District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., 346 U.S. 100, 108 (1953).31. Id. (citing Barnes v. District of Columbia, 91 U.S. 540, 544 (1875)); see also id. at 108-09 ("[D]ecision after decision has held that the delegated power of municipalities is as broad as the police powe......