Louis Brandeis

“ It is true that the courts of a state have the supreme power to interpret and declare the written and unwritten laws of the state; that this court's power to review decisions of state courts is limited to their decisions on federal questions; [6] and that the mere fact that a state court has rendered an erroneous decision on a question of state law, or has overruled principles or doctrines established by previous decisions on which a party relied, does not give rise to a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment or otherwise confer appellate jurisdiction on this court. ”

“ It is plain that the practical effect of the judgment of the Missouri court is to deprive the plaintiff of property without affording it at any time an opportunity to be heard in its defense. The plaintiff asserted an invasion of its substantive right under the federal Constitution to equality of treatment. ”

“ No one doubted the authority of the Laclede Case until it was expressly overruled in the case at bar. [2] While the defendant's answer asserted that the plaintiff had not availed itself of the administrative remedies under articles 3 and 5 of chapter 119 by application to the boards of equalization and was guilty of laches in not so doing (contentions which the state court held to be unsound) , the answer significantly omitted any contention that there had been a remedy by application to the state tax commission, whose powers are dealt with in the intervening article 4. ”