Morrison Waite

“ As a rule, we treat the construction which the highest court of a State has given a statute of the State as part of the statute, and govern ourselves accordingly; but where different constructions have been given to the same statute at different times, we have never felt ourselves bound to follow the latest decisions, if thereby contract rights which have accrued under earlier rulings will be injuriously affected. ”

“ Hence it was that at the session of the legislature which began in January, 1868, and as soon, probably, as the effect of these decisions had become generally understood, to avoid all future doubts as to what was meant, the equivalent language, as construed by the courts, was used, instead of that of the Constitution itself. And so we find not only in the Township Aid Act, but in other acts depending for their authority on the same clause of the Constitution, the requisite assent of those voting at an election was deemed by the legislature to be the assent of the qualified voters. ”

“ Runnels, 'that the provision of the Constitution of the United States, which secures to the citizens of another State the right to sue in the courts of the United States, might become utterly useless and nugatory.' The true rule is to give a change of judicial construction in respect to a statute the same effect in its operation on contracts and existing contract rights that would be given to a legislative amendment ”