Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ If each state should enact a statute such as the one before us, the right secured to a corporation when sued in the courts of a state other than the one creating it, to invoke the jurisdiction of the Federal court, would be abrogated throughout the whole United States, although such right is secured by the Constitution and by valid acts of Congress. ”

“ The truth is that the effect of the statute is simply to place foreign insurance companies upon a par with the domestic ones doing business in Kentucky. No stipulation or agreement being required as a condition for coming into the state and obtaining a permit to do business therein, the mere enactment of a statute which, in substance, says if you choose to exercise your right to remove a case into a Federal court, your right to further do business within the state shall cease and your permit shall be withdrawn, is not open to any constitutional objection. ”

“ In No. 178 the petition stated that the permission or authority to continue to do business in Kentucky had been renewed and extended from year to year by the state insurance commissioner, and that he had, on July 1, 1904, 'continued the authority to the Security Mutual to transact the business of life insurance,' as evidenced by the permit 'for a period of one year from July 1st, 1904.' It was also averred that the permit had been revoked in September, 1904, and the company asked to have the revocation canceled. ”

“ The court further said that the Morse Case had not undertaken to decide what the powers of the state of Wisconsin were in revoking a license previously granted, as no such question had arisen upon the facts therein, and was neither argued by counsel nor referred to in the opinion; but that in the case then before the court (that of Doyle) the point as to the power of the state to revoke a license was distinctly presented. ”

“ We cannot assent to this view. It amounts to a practical nullification in respect to such corporations of the supreme law of the land, and places important constitutional rights at the mercy of the several states. ”