Edward Douglass White

“ This rests upon the assumption that a decree enjoining the collection of a tax for one year can never be the thing adjudged as to the right to collect taxes of a subsequent year. But the proposition entirely disregards the fact that the decree in the Pegues Case, enjoining the collection of the taxes in controversy in that case, was rested upon the ground that there was a contract protected from impairment by the Constitution of the United States which was as controlling on future taxes as it was upon the particular taxes to which the Pegues suit related. ”

“ None of the prohibitions, therefore, of the amendment or of the statute relate to the power of a Federal court to administer relief in causes where jurisdiction as to a state and its officers has been acquired as a result of the voluntary action of the state in submitting its rights to judicial determination. To confound the two classes of cases is but to overlook the distinction which exists between the power of a court to deal with a subject over which it has jurisdiction, and its want of authority to entertain a controversy as to which jurisdiction is not possessed. ”

“ The answer in the Pegues Case, which denied the existence of the alleged contract of exemption, and asserted the existing and continuing power of the state to tax, was signed, for the defendants, by the attorney general of South Carolina, who also, in his official capacity, verified such pleading. The word 'defendants' cannot be construed as implying any other than the county officers empowered to represent the state, without imputing to the attorney general a failure to discharge the duty directly imposed upon him by the state. ”