Stanley Matthews

“ The occupation, which is the subject of the license, is lawful in itself, and is only prohibited for the purpose of the license; that is to say, prohibited in order to compel the taking out a license, and the license is required only as a convenient method of assessing and collecting the tax. ”

“ As to the plaintiff in error, the act of the general assembly of the state of Virginia forbidding payment of his license tax in its coupons, receivable for that tax by a contract protected by the constitution of the United States, is unconstitutional, and its unconstitutionality infects and nullifies the antecedent legislation of the state, of which it becomes a part, when applied, as in this case, to enforce an unconstitutional enactment against a party, not only without fault, but seeking merely to exercise a right secured to him by the constitution. ”

“ The payment required as a preliminary to the license is in the nature and form of a tax, and is a due to the state, which it may demand and exact from every one of its citizens who either will or must follow some business avocation within its limits to the pursuit of which the assessment is made a condition precedent. ”

“ The action of the officer is based on the authority of an act of the general assembly of the state, which, although it may be null and void, because unconstitutional, as against the applicant, gives the color of official character to the conduct of the officer in his refusal ”

“ In that aspect no one would doubt that it would be a perfect defense that the defendant had previously paid the demand, or, what we have held to be legally equivalent, had tendered the amount in the coupons of the state, receivable in payment by an irrepealable contract, but which the appointed authorities of the state had wrongfully refused to receive. Such, as we conceive it, is the present case. ”