Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ No doubt some sort of a legislature would exist, Constitution or no Constitution; and presumably would have power to regulate rates charged by companies performing public services, or to restrict that power by a constitutionally binding contract. But the actual legislature derives its being, its form as a senate and house of representatives, and its powers, from the instrument in force. When the Constitution says that the legislature 'is invested' with a certain power, it invests it with that power ”

“ So much probably would be admitted; but it is said that the clause is merely declaratory of powers which the legislature would have had without it, and which, with or without it, the legislature could cut down by contract. The argument is not without force, but it did not prevail in this case, and we are not prepared to overrule the Florida courts in their interpretation of their own laws. It is entirely possible to read the words as conferring a power which, by their very form, they were meant to make inalienable. ”

“ Water companies are corporations performing services of a public nature quite as much as common carriers, and, therefore, are within the words of the clause which is not confined to common carriers. A natural method of preventing excessive charges is the passage by the cities or towns within which the services are performed, of ordinances establishing reasonable rates and punishing noncompliance. Therefore the power to prevent excessive charges, given to the legislature, properly was exercised by a law granting cities authority to pass ordinances of the kind supposed. ”