When a Court Rules That a Law Is Unconstitutional

1. United States v. Peters, 9 U. S. (5 Cr.) 115 (1809). A Pennsylvania law that prohibits proceedings to enforce a specific sentence of a federal court on the grounds that the federal court does not have jurisdiction over the matter could not replace the federal court. A state law that seeks to overturn the judgment of a United States court and destroy its vested rights has no legal basis. A Colorado law, when applied to a person convicted of pre-execution murder and increased sentence, was void as retroactive law. A Minnesota law that authorized the summoning of a person who regularly published a vicious, scandalous, and defamatory newspaper or magazine, as applied to publications accusing dereliction of duty and bribery by state law enforcement officials, resulted in an unconstitutional violation of freedom of the press, protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. An Iowa law that made a foreign company`s license to conduct local business conditional on giving up its right to invoke the diversity of federal citizenship courts required an invalid loss of constitutional law. An anti-abuse law that generally prohibits the assignment of a student on the basis of race and prohibits bus transportation for that purpose is unconstitutional.

A California law that imposed a royalty on each dealer for each gallon of fuel sold and supplied by him in the state could not be constitutionally applied to the sale and supply of gasoline to a military reserve over which the United States had acquired exclusive jurisdiction. A violation of the constitution can be minor or serious. In the UK, much of the constitution is unwritten, making the term more ambiguous and includes a law that violates principles, procedures or rights that make it difficult to determine what is unconstitutional. A Federal Court ruling that a Texas legal system that denies offenders sentenced to prison good credit of time until appeal, but gives good credit of time to imprisoned and non-appellant offenders, unconstitutionally interferes with the right to appeal, is summarily upheld. The New York Civil Service Act`s preference for New York residents who are honorably released veterans and who resided in New York when they entered the military violates the equality clause. An Ohio law allowing the death penalty for first-degree murder unconstitutionally restricted the sentencing party`s consideration of mitigating circumstances. The Arkansas gross receipts tax, which is levied on gross proceeds from sales in the state, cannot be applied to transactions in which private contractors in Arkansas purchased two tractors for the construction of a naval ammunition depot for the United States under a cost-plus fixed fee contract. Applicable federal laws provide that the contractor acts as a purchaser for the government in purchasing the items necessary for the performance of the contract and that the government not only acquires the good, but is directly liable to the seller for the purchase price.

The tax is void as a levy for the Confederation. In many jurisdictions, the Supreme Court or Constitutional Court is the final judicial arbiter to give an opinion on the constitutionality of a law or action of a government official. Most constitutions define the powers of government. Therefore, national constitutions generally apply only to governmental acts. Only governments can then violate the country`s constitution, but there are exceptions. The Florida Act, which required motor carriers to file a deposit or insurance policy to protect the public from injury, but exempted vehicles used exclusively for the delivery of dairy products and carriers that transported exclusively fish, agricultural products and dairy products between production and shipping points en route to the primary market, denied the same protections as the laws; and to the extent that it has submitted the requirements for obtaining a certificate of expediency, necessity and price regulation, as required by ordinary carriers, the Act is contrary to due process. Alabama`s constitutional and legal provisions, which do not distribute seats in both houses of the legislature on the basis of population, violated the equality clause.