Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1905 — CLEARLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL [ARTICLE]

CLEARLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Would Be Act to Re-Imburse County Treasurer for Loss of Funds In McCoy Bank.

Should the act to relieve the bondsmen of County Treasurer Nichols become a law, all that is neccessary to do to defeat the measure becoming effective is to take the matter into court and enjoin the levying or collecting of the tax neccessary to make up the amount. The supreme court of our state and of other states have repeatedly held that the legislature had no power to reimburse a public officer/for funds lost in any manner pi his official capacity.

In a case decided by our highest state court as late as 1895 it held, in reversing the decieion of a lower court in a similar case, “that the legislative act of relief was in conflict with section 24 of the Bill of Rights, which provides that no * * * law imparing the obligation of contracts, shall be passed! and, further, that the legislature HAS NO POWER TO RE-IMBURSE A PUBLIC OFFICER FOR MONEY BY HIM LOST IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY. This is plain language certainly.