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Page 1 of 5 Dear Reader,
Please read the following document with an open mind. It is not intended to offend anyone. I am a legal historian that has taken me on a journey way beyond my own beliefs of the way I thought things are, or the way I thought things should be that has changed my life forever. Its purpose is to alert the people of just what is happening to America based upon facts in the law. It has taken the author, who is not a lawyer and never went to law school, but graduated from the school of real hard knocks, 40 years to research, develop, and compile this information. Most of what you will read you probably will not understand, but if you keep pecking away at it, the lights will come on one by one. A page has been taken from Ayn Rand to tell the following facts in many different ways hoping the reader will find the nitch to understanding.
The American people became bankrupt in 1933. As a result of the bankruptcy and the coming of the massive debt load by the people, the government has launched a reorganization plan. In other words, public policy has shifted from a policy of
pay as you go to a very dangerous policy of go and pay later. In order to cloud the bankruptcy and reorganization issue, the government has been involved in huge misinformation programs that spawn many conspiracy theories, tabloids, and websites, that are nothing more than gobbledygook to lead people into chasing rabbits thus, creating confusion in order to neutralize opposition. Diversion protects the private banking, insurance, and investment interest involved in the bankruptcy and reorganization that the individual has a vested interested in through social security, insurance, and retirement. In fact and in law there is no vast conspiracy, just pure greed and egos. The whole bureaucracy has taken on a life of its own driven by the people’s greed. The more debt that is created by people by not taking on the responsibilities for themselves, the less freedoms and liberties they will have until all life is choked out of those who are subject to the 14th Amendment.
Title 48 United States Code of Federal Regulations discloses names and everything the federal government is doing and what is in those federal regulations is a far cry from the vast conspiracy propagandist in whatever form, disseminating half truths, innuendoes, and absolute lies. Unknown to most conspirators, they become agents for the government by adding to even more mass confusion.
The truth of the matter is, there is in reality no Government in Washington D.C., instead there is a mass bureaucracy floated on debt and credit that is driven by hundreds of associations that are comprised of private parties. Some of these associations are unincorporated thus are not recognized by law as a legal entity. Neither the Constitution of the United States or the common law forbids such associations, but tolerates them. In other words, these associations operate outside the Separation of Powers Doctrine as enumerated to the Constitution of United States. The Constitution was designed to protect the individual and the right to enter into contracts without Government intervention. These private associations control the bureaucracies that enact administrative laws that are to benefit the members of the associations. All this is accomplished by and through contract law that the members have volunteered into. Before the bankruptcy we had a Government of free enterprise whereby private unincorporated associations could not meddle with the law because they were not legal entities. Today the government is private enterprise run by an unincorporated association called public policy. Those public policy laws directly affect the masses that contracted with the association for their own benefit. In other words, you have both of your hands around your neck choking yourself. All you have to do is release your hands. I have met the enemy and it is I. Sad to say, but voting today is nothing more than electing who has the money to buy the election and select what brand of mass confusion and mayhem will lead the nation into a communist dictatorship. There is no standard of values because the law treats a bankrupt people as outlaws and fictitious “persons”.
ARE YOU “SUBJECT TO” ©
Monday September 1, 2008
The 14th Amendment reads in part:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. (Bold emphasis added)
The 14th amendment is an executive order (proclamation) Vol. 1 of Presidential Executive Orders, 2 vols. (N.Y.: Books, Inc., 1944—Copyright by Mayor of N.Y. 1944).
“[T]he term 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof ‘ . . . must be construed in the sense in which the term is used in international law as accepted in the United States as well as Europe. * * * The provision of the 14th Amendment alluded to . . . is affirmative and declaratory, intended to allay doubts and to settle controversies which had arisen with respect to citizenship.” Francis Wharton, A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws or Private International Law, 3rd ed. (Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co., 1906), vol. 1, pp. 45-47.
“And subject to”. The question is who is “subject to” the 14th Amendment?
The 14th Amendment made everybody a commercial citizen. With the advent of the explosion of commerce in the early 1800’s, man started to venture into other jurisdictions in quest of his business ventures, and in so doing, became subject to the laws of those various foreign jurisdictions. As long as he remained free from debt he could still maintain his permanent domicile in the state wherein he had his domicile. In other words, he remained under the protection of the common law of his state with absolute property rights to all his property. Any and all claims by the state could only come about by trial by jury in both civil and criminal claims. In said claims there had to be a franchise or immunity that the citizen had with the state or there was no jurisdiction. The same pertained to the federal government. The minute he became a debtor, he could no longer establish a permanent domicile, i.e., remain a Citizen of the Common Law of “the State” wherein he was domiciled, thus, he became a resident. This is the rule of private international law, and the law of nations. To further prove the above statement it is read:
In his treatise on the “History of Land Titles in Massachusetts”, (1801), James Sullivan, former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court at pp. 337-338 stated:
Personal estate is not fixed to any place or country, and contracts depend on the jus gentium (the general law of nations) for their origin and their expositions, rather than on any municipal regulations of particular countries.
It is observed by Justinian, that the law of nations is held in common by all the world; and that all contracts had their origin in those necessities of mankind, which urged them to buying, selling, etc. … As personal contracts are founded in commerce, they cannot rest on the particular laws of one country only; but ought to be the subject of those principles of the general law of nations, which are acknowledged by the world.
Our Constitution represents the law of a public incorporated association, the Constitution being the Charter of that public incorporated association. Former Chief Justice John Marshall in United States v. Maurice (U.S.) 26 Fed Cas. 1211, stated, at page 1216: “The United States is a government, and consequently a body politic and corporate, capable of attaining the objects for which it was created by the means which are necessary for their attainment. This great corporation was ordained and established by the American people, and endowed by them with great powers, for important purposes.” Quoted In re Merriam’s Estate, 36 N.E. 505, 506, 141 N.Y. 479. The American People created the National corporation; the National corporation did not create the people. As the Preamble says: “We the People in Order to form a more perfect Union … .” Establish public money for the “payment” of private debt as per the National Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 at Statute I United States Statutes at Large Chap. XVI Section I. “Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, and it is hereby enacted and declared, . . .” See also Sec. 14 and 16 of said Act. [Italics in original]
In other words, the Constitution is a common law document1 that spells out what powers the Government has, if it does not appear in the Charter the Government does not have that power. Our Constitution guaranteed two distinct things, the separation of powers doctrine, i.e., executive, judicial, legislative, under Articles I, II, III, and the Common Law of “the States” that was definitive by Article I Section 10 on the subject of “Payment of Debt” in Law under our National “Standard” lawful money (hereinafter “Standard” lawful money) and the Contract clause of Article I Section 10. “Standard” lawful money in “Payment” of debt in and of itself was not and can never be considered commerce; whereas debt/credit is commerce and foreign to the Common Law of the various States and the sovereignty of the individual’s contract rights. In other words, in the Common Law of “the State”, there is a meeting of the minds and the terms of the contract are spelled out bilaterally with no third party intervention. Today the third party is the government administering the public debt through one sided unilateral contracts that the people have signed into through the banks and various agencies.
The 14th Amendment implies everybody is a U.S. citizen primarily and a citizen of “this state” secondarily whereas; before the amendment everybody was considered primarily State Citizens of “the state”, secondarily U.S. citizens.2 Being a commercial citizen you could or can remain a Citizen of your State primarily despite the fact that there is no “Standard” lawful money. With the advent of HJR 192, on June 5, 1933 (48 Stat 113, P.L. 73-10), Codified at Title 31 United States Code Section 5118 2d, (hereinafter HJR 192 attached at end). It is now presumed you are a debtor/creditor because Congress says it is against public policy to demand “payment”. If you can go into debt, but you cannot “pay” your debts at Law, you are presumed to be a debtor/creditor in “discharge” of debts. If you are a debtor/creditor then you are primarily a U.S. citizen. All that is needed is evidence that you are a debtor.
These private unincorporated associations have no charter and have always been a thorn in the side to “the states” common law and the sovereignty of the individual with the Justinian devised concept of controlling people’s actions with contract law. In other words, you enslave yourself with your own signature on any government form or forms. Introduction of the unincorporated association(s) was accomplished by the use of contract law whereby people could join together for a common purpose. In other words, people contracted with each other under the Common Law to do certain things such as forming an unincorporated association for a commercial enterprise. The problem was, the people contracted to enter into private international law thus, in a conspiracy and detriment to the Common Law of “the State”. The common law of “the state” was helpless to stop them because of Article I Section 10’s contract clause. The common law does not forbid such associations, but only tolerates them by controlling them, thus, the Constitution provides a remedy that we will explore.
Commercial citizenship was nothing new to the founders of this great Nation. The Law of Nations recognized commercial citizenship long before United States of America was founded. It is or was the commercial citizenship of the 14th Amendment that was invoked to help solve the problem of making people of color a part of our great Nation.
The problem of slavery between the north and south came to a head before the 14th
Amendment went into effect. Congress in 1861 enacted the War Powers Act under Article I Section 8 cl. 11 to the Constitution to deal with the Civil War. Today those war powers are still in effect with the war on drugs, war on poverty etc., not under Article I, but under private international law, through Article IV Section 3 cl.2,3 in addition to a National Emergency declared in 1933 that brought about drastic changes how the 14th Amendment operates. Senate Report 93-549 (1973), declared since March 9, 1933 we are in a national emergency. Said emergency brought about HJR 192 supra.
Despite Congresses’ War Powers and the ability to create a National Emergency, Congress cannot override your personal liberties with public policy to discharge an obligation via HJR 192.4
It must also be mentioned here that under the war powers act there are no true 5th Amendment protections. See Miller v. United States 78 U.S. 144.
What had been a banking system that dealt primarily with a money backed system of public money for private debt before 1933 has since developed into a primarily backed debt/credit banking system of private money for public debt. Despite the fact of private money for public debt, the fact remains that there still remains two distinct sides to the banks. There is the incorporated side that deals in currency and coin of the United States under the general (commercial) federal common law, i.e., Article I Section 8; and the unincorporated side that deals in debt/credit under private international law i.e., Article IV Sec 3 cl.2 and the 14th amendment. “Instead of communicating to the company its privileges and its prerogatives, it descends to a level with whom it associates itself, and takes the character which belongs to its associates and to the business which is to be transacted.” The Bank of United States v. Planters Bank 9 Wheat. 904, 907 (22 U.S. 904). In other words, by contract law, you hold the key as to what side of the law you have entered into.
The National Banks were reorganized by the National Banking Relief Act of March 9, 1933.
The banking charter spells out what the new duties and liabilities of the banking association are such
as lending currency etc. In other words, a corporate charter governs the banks through Article I Section 8 to the Constitution.
The unincorporated side of the banks and the insolvency or bankruptcy of the people was announced by HJR 192 and exists to this very day. There is no charter to spell out the terms, conditions, and liabilities of the new unincorporated banking association that deals in debt/credit. Since 1933, it is now presumed that by HJR 192, that you are using the debt/credit of public policy whereby everybody reinsures everybody else in the communal debt as evidenced by Title 15 United States Code (hereinafter USC) Chap. 41 Sec. 1602 (c), (d), (e). There is no corporate charter to control the association, the association and its members must be controlled by bureaucrats and administrative codes that the courts take judicial notice of the difference between the two different jurisdictions. The letter and strict meaning and interpretation of the law in the incorporated side; the spirit and true meaning of the law in the unincorporated side. This is why we don’t get the Constitutional protection we think we have. You must also keep in mind the law as evidenced by the Constitution does not deal with debt/credit. Those who deal in the unincorporated side of the banks and its debt/credit are in a conspiracy to destroy the grounded substance of “the states” that Congress and the courts by the Constitution are bound to protect. See Munn v. Illinois 94 U.S. 113 infra. Therefore, in order to protect the grounded substance of the states from our greed, incompetence etc., Congress acting under local law, i.e., Article IV Section 3, cl.2 or territorial law passes legislation to control our actions. Debt created that cannot be “Payed” in Law, i.e., “discharge” of debt creates compelled performance in equity, eventually putting more demands on the substance of the land than the land can handle. In order to protect the land, the government creates all these bureaucracies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Endangered Species Act, etc., that in turn destroys your freedoms, and ownership of property, real and personal, and the rights thereto. Essentially, we are financing our own destruction with the use of debt/credit for sake of expediency and convenience. More on this infra.
Title 15 USC Trade and Commerce, Chap. 41, Section 1602 in part to wit:
(c) The term ''organization'' means a corporation, government or
governmental subdivision or agency, trust, estate, partnership,
cooperative, or association.
(d) The term ''person'' means a natural person or an
organization.
(e) The term ''credit'' means the right granted by a creditor to
a debtor to defer payment of debt or to incur debt and defer its
payment. [Bold emphasis added] [“forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors”]
Title 12, Banks and Banking, USC 95(a) (1), (A) reads:
Section 95a. Regulation of transactions in foreign exchange of gold and silver; property transfers; vested interests, enforcement and penalties
(1) During the time of war, the President may, through any agency
that he may designate, and under such rules and regulations as he
may prescribe, by means of instructions, licenses, or otherwise –
(A) investigate, regulate, or prohibit, any transactions in
foreign exchange, transfers of credit or payments between, by,
through, or to any banking institution, and the importing,
exporting, hoarding, melting, or earmarking of gold or silver
coin or bullion, currency or securities, and
(B) investigate, regulate, direct and compel, nullify, void,
prevent or prohibit, any acquisition holding, withholding, use,
transfer, withdrawal, transportation, importation or exportation
of, or dealing in, or exercising any right, power, or privilege
with respect to, or transactions involving, any property in which
any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest,
by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States; and any property or interest of
any foreign country or national thereof shall vest, when, as, and
upon the terms, directed by the President, in such agency or person
as may be designated from time to time by the President, and upon
such terms and conditions as the President may prescribe such
interest or property shall be held, used, administered, liquidated,
sold, or otherwise dealt with in the interest of and for the
benefit of the United States, and such designated agency or person
may perform any and all acts incident to the accomplishment or
furtherance of these purposes; and the President shall, in the
manner hereinabove provided, require any person to keep a full
record of, and to furnish under oath, in the form of reports or
otherwise, complete information relative to any act or transaction
referred to in this subdivision either before, during, or after the
completion thereof, or relative to any interest in foreign
property, or relative to any property in which any foreign country
or any national thereof has or has had any interest, or as may be
otherwise necessary to enforce the provisions of this subdivision,
and in any case in which a report could be required, the President
may, in the manner hereinabove provided, require the production, or
if necessary to the national security or defense, the seizure, of
any books of account, records, contracts, letters, memoranda, or
other papers, in the custody or control of such person.
(3) As used in this subdivision the term ''United States'' means
the United States and any place subject to the jurisdiction
thereof; Provided, however, That the foregoing shall not be
construed as a limitation upon the power of the President, which is
hereby conferred, to prescribe from time to time, definitions, not
inconsistent with the purposes of this subdivision, for any or all
of the terms used in this subdivision. As used in this subdivision
the term ''person'' means an individual, partnership, association,
or corporation [Bold emphasis added]
The people in mass, that is, public policy gave up “Payment” of debt in Law and unilaterally agreed to “discharge” their debt with its consequences of compelled performance in equity.
There is a distinction between a “debt discharged” and a “debt paid.” When discharged the debt still exists though divested of its character as a legal obligation during the operation of the discharge. Something of the original vitality of the debt continues to exist which may be transferred, even though the transferee takes it subject to its disability incident to the discharge. The fact that it carries something which may be a consideration for a new promise to pay, so as to make an otherwise worthless promise a legal obligation, makes it the subject of transfer by assignment. Stanek v. White, 172 Minn. 390, 215 N.W. 784.
HJR 192 is a violation of Article I Section 10 to the U.S. Constitution as regards “the State” on the subject of “Payment”, and is the reason you cannot be compelled to be in a debtor/creditor relationship. There is no such injunction of “Payment” in Law in the Constitution at the federal level. There is no federal common law. Wheaton v. Peters 33 U.S. 591 (1834). No federal common law is the reason the federal government can pass notes that are legal tender and lawful money under Article I Section 8. In fact, Article I Section 8 of the Constitution is the only mention of the federal powers that deals with money, not private debt/credit. See Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio RR 294 U.S. 312 where Congress noted the distinction between credit and currency.
1 See Munn v. Illinois 94 U.S. 113, infra.
2The primary purpose of the 14th amendment was to overturn the doctrine of state citizenship being primary to federal citizenship being primary to those to whom it applies. Afroyim v. Rusk 387 U.S. 253 (1967). The 14th amendment states “and subject to”. The amendment does not say everybody is “subject to” the amendment.
3The best way to understand the United States Constitution as the founders wrote it is in a three dimensional form that has three departments of government under the separation of powers doctrine in the land of reality. The legislature, executive and judicial under Articles I, II, III. Article III courts reflect common law principles derived from the grounded substance of the common law of the states with it’s hard Coin and physical borders outlined in each states’ constitution via Article IV sec. 3 cl.1 that reflects the separation of powers. Said separation of powers that includes the first 10 amendments.. The law of nations is part of that three dimensional document.
Contrary to the three dimensional form in reality; we have a spiritual form in the land of make believe of debt/credit. We will call the form a over lay that you can see only the legislative and executive under Articles I and II. The judicial branch being filtered out because of privileges and immunities under private international law that create administrative courts under control of Congress under Article IV sec. 3 cl.2; amendments 11 and 14. Quite obviously there is no separation of powers. UNDER ARTICLE IV SECTION 3 CL.2 WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS, THE DIFFERENT LAW FORUMS SUCH AS THE COMMON LAW, ADMIRALTY-MARITIME, CIVIL LAW, PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW, THE LAW OF TRUSTS, LAW AS OPPOSED TO EQUITY HAVE BEEN ABOLISHED AND ARE NOW TREATED AS ONE AND THE SAME. THIS IS WHY IT IS SO DIFFICULT IN UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AMERICA. IN THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.
When the founding fathers meet in public meetings drawing up the Constitution; you will also read that the founders held private meetings to the exclusion of the public. These private meetings were held to formulate private Roman law (private international law) under Article IV Sec. 3 cl.2. Said Article IV Sec. 3 cl.2 created Conflict of Law with the PUBLIC (commercial) international law under Article IV Sec. 3 cl.1. PUBLIC international law was also known as the PUBLIC law merchant under the law of nations where all debts were to be paid in gold and silver. Said law of nations is not to be confused with the United Nations which is private international law where debts are not to be paid in gold and silver but “discharged” with compelled performance.
The rights of man do not come from government, they come from God. The reason the founders talked about God so much was that the constitution’s original intent was that privileges and immunities do not come from God but from government. Tom Jefferson stated: “All men are created equal”, meaning no man is born with special privileges and immunities before the natural law. What a terrifying thought as we witness destruction of God in our society today. World history is repeat of the idea that government creates man that has produced a long line of tyrants. We are going down the same road called Marxism. In the mind it sounds good but in reality it will never work along with the other tyrannies because you will never control mans greed and incompetence, therefore, the less government we have, the less greed, incompetence, corruption and control.
4Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon power granted or reserved. The Constitution was adopted in a period of grave emergency. Its grants of power to the federal government and its limitations of the power of the States were determined in the light of emergency, and they are not altered by emergency. What power was thus granted and what limitations were thus imposed are questions [290 U.S. 398, 426] which have always been, and always will be, the subject of close examination under our constitutional system. Home Bldg. & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398 (1934).
While emergency does not create power, emergency may furnish the occasion for the exercise of power. 'Although an emergency may not call into life a power which has never lived, nevertheless emergency may afford a reason for the exertion of a living power already enjoyed.' Wilson v. New, 243 US 332, 348. The constitutional question presented in the light of an emergency is whether the power possessed embraces the particular exercise of it in response to particular conditions. Thus, the war power of the federal government is not created by the emergency of war, but it is a power given to meet that emergency. It is a power to wage war successfully, and thus it permits the harnessing of the entire energies of the people in a supreme co-operative effort to preserve the nation. But even the war power does not remove constitutional limitations safeguarding essential liberties. Ex parte Milligan, 4 Wall. 2, 120-127; United States v. Russell, 13 Wall. 633, 627; Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co., 251 US 146, 155; United States v. L. Cohen Grocery Co., 255 US 81, 88. When the provisions of the Constitution, in grant or restriction, are specific, so particularized as not to admit of construction, no question is presented. Thus, emergency would not permit a state to have more than two Senators in the Congress, or permit the election of President by a general popular vote without regard to the number of electors to which the States are respectively entitled, or permit the States to 'coin money' or to 'make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.' But, where constitutional grants and limitations of power are set forth in general clauses, which afford a broad outline, the process of construction is essential to fill in the details. That is true of the contract clause. The necessity of construction is not obviated by [290 U.S. 398, 427] the fact that the contract clause is associated in the same section with other and more specific prohibitions. Even the grouping of subjects in the same clause may not require the same application to each of the subjects, regardless of differences in their nature. Home Bldg. & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398 (1934). See Groves v. Slaughter, 15 Pet. 449, 505; Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers v. United States, 286 US 427, 434.
No attempt has been made to fix definitely the line between alterations of the remedy, which are to be deemed legitimate, and those which, under the form of modifying the remedy, impair substantial rights. Every case must be determined upon its own circumstances.' And Chief Justice Waite, quoting this language in Antoni v. Greenhow, 107 US 769, 775. 'In all such cases the question becomes, therefore, one of reasonableness, and of that the legislature is primarily the judge.' [290 U.S. 398, 431] The obligations of a contract are impaired by a law which renders them invalid, or releases or extinguishes them. (Sturges v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. 197, 198) and impairment, as above noted, has been predicated of laws which without destroying contracts derogate from substantial contractual rights.Home Bldg. & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell, supra, 290 U.S. 398 (1934). [Bold emphasis added]
When your rights to Pay debts at law have been unlawfully refused under by H.J.R. 192, (48 Stat 113); that is only prima facie evidence of the law. You have the Constitutional power to stand on Article I Section 10 in defense of your person and property against all unlawful assaults and seizures. This includes the right of refusal to mortgage his future performances in discharge of a debt to a private unincorporated banking association in perpetual succession. “If any subsequent law affect to diminish the duty or to impair the right, it necessarily bears on the obligation of the contract, in favor of one party to the injury of the other; hence any law which in its operation amounts to a denial or obstruction of the rights accruing by a contract, though professing to act only on the remedy, is directly obnoxious to the prohibition of the constitution.” Poindexter v. Greenhow 114 U.S. 270, 304. “The state itself is an ideal person, intangible, invisible, immutable. The government is an agent, and, within the sphere of the agency, a perfect representative; but outside of that, it is a lawless usurpation. The constitution of the state is the limit of the authority of its government, and both government and state are subject to the supremacy of the constitution of the United States, and of the laws made in pursuance thereof. . . . That which, therefore, is unlawful because made so by the supreme law, the constitution of the United States, is not the word or deed of the state, but is the mere wrong and trespass of those individual persons who falsely speak and act in its name. It was upon the ground of this important distinction that this court proceeded in the case of Texas v. White, 7 Wall. 700.” Poindexter v. Greenhow supra, 270, 290.
A statute valid at one time may become void at another because of altered circumstances. Nashville, C. & S. L. Railway v. Walters, 294 US 405. Thus, if a statute in its practical operation becomes arbitrary or confiscatory its validity, even though affirmed by former adjudication is open to inquiry and investigation in the light of changed conditions. Re Opinion of Justices, 278, 181 NE 833. This principle is applicable to acts of Congress. Hamilton v. Kentucky Distilleries & Warehouse Co., 251 US 146. [HJR 192]
[L]egislation which deprives one of the benefit of a contract, or adds new duties or obligations thereto, necessarily impairs the obligation of the contract, and when the state court gives effect to subsequent [federal local law] legislation which has the effect to impair contract rights by depriving the parties of their benefit, and make requirements which the contract did not theretofore impose upon them, a case is presented for the jurisdiction of this court. Northern Pacific R. v. Minn. 208 U.S. 583, 592 (1908), Ouoting New Orleans Waterworks Co. v. Louisiana, 185 US 336, 350.
“Legislative fiat may not take the place of fact in the judicial determination of issues involving life, liberty or property.” Western & A. R. Co. v. Henderson, 279 U.S. 639, citing Manley v. Georgia 279 U.S. 1, holding invalid certain laws which made legal presumptions without proof of sufficient basis of liability. Taken from p. 262 Fletcher Cyclopedia Corp. Vol. 1 Chap. 1.
Valid contracts have the status of property for the purpose of the guaranty of due process of law. N.H. Lyons & Co. v. Corsi 3 NY 2d 928 167 NYS2d 945, 145 NE2d 885, app dismd 355 US 284; People ex rel. Rodgers v. Coler, 166 NY 1, 59 NE 716, and as such are protected from being taken without just compensation, whether the obligator is a private individual, a municipality, a state, or the United States. Lynch v. United States 292 US 571.
Other courts have stated that the liberty to make contracts includes the corresponding right to refuse to accept a contract or to assume such liability as may be proposed. St. Louis S.R. Co. v. Griffin, 106 Tex 477, 171 SW 703; Seattle High School Chapter A. F. T. v. Sharples, 159 Wash 424, 293 P 994.
A person cannot be forced to do a thing which he did not agree to do because it is like, and no more burdensome than, something which he did contract to do. Crane Ice Cream Co. v. Terminal Freezing & Heating Co., 147 Md 588, 128 A 280. Taken from 16 A Am Jur § 592, p. 524.
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