Contracting state

“ If it be true that the 'obligation of contracts,' within the meaning of the constitution, is derived solely from general and universal law, independent of the laws of the State, then it must follow, that all contracts made in the same or similar terms, must, whenever, or wherever made, have the same obligation. ”

“ If one starts with the assumption that, in the absence of specific Congressional authority, a fixed rule of law precludes contracting officers from providing in a Government contract terms reasonably calculated to assure its performance even though there be no money loss through a particular default, there is no problem. ”

“ A claim that a State statute impairs the obligation of contract is an appeal to the United States Constitution, and cannot be foreclosed by a State court's determination whether there was a contract or what were its obligations. ”

“ Whether an alleged contract arises from state legislation, or by agreement with the agents of a state by its authority, or by stipulations between individuals exclusively, we are obliged, upon our own judgment, and independently of the adjudication of the state court, to decide whether there exists a contract within the protection of the constitution of the United States. ”

“ When accepted, it was, therefore, a contract by which the State authorized the company to establish works and carry on a business which, without the authority, would be a nuisance to a few persons, in order to relieve a very large community from a greater nuisance. ”

“ A law which authorizes the discharge of a contract by a smaller sum, or at a different time, or in a different manner, than the parties have stipulated, impairs its obligation, by substituting, for the contract of the parties, one which they never entered into, and to the performance of which, of course, they never had consented. ”

“ Yet each state, so long as it does not impair the obligation of any contract, has the power by general laws to regulate the conveyance and disposition of all property, personal or real, within its limits and jurisdiction. ”

“ We also need do no more than mention cases where, absent a conflicting federal regulation, a State seeks to impose safety or other requirements on a contractor who does business for the United States. ”

“ In that case the contract is the means employed for carrying into execution the powers of the government, and the contract alone, and not the contractor, is exempt from taxation or other interference by the State government.
But where the General government creates a corporation as a means of carrying out a national object, that corporation and its powers, property, and faculties, employed in accomplishing the service, are the instrumentalities by which the government effects its objects. ”

“ Mishkin, 53 Col.L.Rev., at 193: 'Without doubt, a federal forum should be available for all suits involving the Government, its agents and instrumentalities, regardless of the source of the substantive rule.'↑ Enunciation of such a requirement could in fact bring federal law somewhat further to the forefront than was true of Osborn, the Pacific Railroad Removal Cases, or the bankruptcy cases in the few cases where an assertion could be made that state law did not sufficiently recognize collective agreements as contracts. ”

“ The Court says, 'Laws which restrict a party to those gains reasonably to be expected from the contract are not subject to attack under the Contract Clause, notwithstanding that they technically alter an obligation of a contract.' Otherwise stated, a person can make a good deal with a State but if it turns out to be a very good deal for him or a very bad deal for the State, the State is free to renege at any time. ”

“ The Secretary of Labor may, when the Secretary deems that special circumstances in the national interest so require, exempt a contracting agency from the requirement of including any or all of the provisions of Section 202 of this Order in any specific contract, subcontract, or purchase order.
‘‘ (b) The Secretary of Labor may, by rule or regulation, exempt certain classes of contracts, subcontracts, or purchase orders (1) whenever work is to be or has been performed outside the United States and no recruitment of workers within the limits of the United States is involved ”

“ If a minister or the senior official responsible for contracting within
governmental unit or agency awarding the contract determines the requirement
being satisfied by the contract is of such importance to the public interest that
ceasing work will unduly harm the public interest, such minister or official
may, by written determination of such undue harm, and after notice to the
Tribunal, order the governmental unit or agency to notify the contractor to
proceed with the contract. ”

“ We have held that the question whether a party has by laches and acquiescence waived the right to insist that a state statute impaired the obligation of a contract is not a federal question. Pierce v. ”

“ To the extent that the contract imposes a duty consistent with the Act to comply with the awards, that duty is a federal requirement. If Central must comply, it is because federal law requires its compliance.
In the circumstances we have here, we are not dealing with a suit involving an aspect of federal law which is only collateral or remote or a case where state and federal laws are so blended as to present a serious question of the scope of the arising-under provision of § 1331 or § 1337. ”

“ That there was no jurisdiction, even although the complainant relied upon contracts arising from the ordinances adopted subsequent to that of 1879. To constitute the impairment of a contract within the sense of the Constitution, it is correctly argued, requires that some subsequent action taken by the state or under its authority should have been given effect as against the contract. ”

“ While we have never hesitated to vindicate the right of individuals or corporations to enforce the performance of lawful contracts as against subsequent legislation designed to impair them, we have always exacted as a condition that the contract was one which the legislature, or opposite party, had power to make under the Constitution, and that the other party was chargeable with knowledge of all its provisions in that connection. ”

“ Does the contract, called a bill of exchange, stand on any different footing? It is true, that when once made, by a person having authority to make it, in any given case, it is not open to the same inquiries, in the hands of a third party, that ordinary contracts are, as to the justice, fairness, and good faith which attended its origin, or any of its subsequent transfers; but, in reference to the authority of the officer who makes it, to bind the government, it is to be judged by the same rule as other contracts. ”

“ In cases of contract, the law of the State in force when the contract was made forms part of the contract, and must be applied in the Federal courts in construing and enforcing the contract. A decision of the State court, made before the contract, settling the law of the State, is authority in the Federal court, without regard to whether it be sound or unsound in principle, because the parties must be presumed to have contracted with reference to it. ”

“ Many state court cases did the same. [3] So did a variety of federal statutes. [4] And state statutes too. [5] We see here no evidence that a “contract of employment” necessarily signaled a formal employer-employee or master-servant relationship.
More confirmation yet comes from a neighboring term in the statutory text. Recall that the Act excludes from its coverage “contracts of employment of... any... class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.” ”

“ Department of Justice, Justice Management Div., 31 F.L.R.A. 322, 338 (1988) (§ 7106 (a) reserves to management the right to make contracting-out decisions only when they are "in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations") ; GSA v. American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO Nat. Council 236, 27 F.L.R.A. 3, 6 (1987) (§ 7106 (a) does not preclude union from compelling agency compliance with any "applicable law, rule, or regulation") . ”

“ When we speak of a compact in a legal sense, we naturally include in it the notion of distinct contracting parties, having mutual rights, and remedies to enforce the obligations arising therefrom. We suppose, that each party has an equal and independent capacity to enter into the contract, and has an equal right to judge of its terms, to enforce its obligations, and to insist upon redress for any violation of them. ”

“ The validity of a contract, as a matter of fact, depends upon the ability of the parties to enter into it, for no court can enforce a contract when it is shown that the principals to it had not legal right to make it or to fulfill the conditions of it. It is accepted as a surety of power to observe the conditions when a sovereign government makes itself a party to a contract. The people are bound by their agents, to whom they delegate authority. Nothing is regarded in a more obnoxious light than the repudiation of their honest debts by sovereign States. ”

“ The government, purely as contractor, in the absence of special laws, may stand like a private person; but, by making a contract, it does not give up its power to make a law, and it may make a law like the present for the reasons that we have stated. We are of opinion that the act is not contrary to the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ But if I am right in the opinion which I have already expressed, that the general power of contracting is an incident to a corporation which it requires an indication of intention in the legislature to take away, I see no such indication here. If the question was whether the legislature had conferred on a corporation, created under this act, capacity to enter into contracts beyond the provisions of the deed, there could be only one answer. ”

“ Persons who might be 'employees' in one state would be 'independent contractors' in another. They would be within or without the statute's protection depending not on whether their situation falls factually within the ambit Congress had in mind, but upon the accidents of the location of their work and the attitude of the particular local jurisdiction in casting doubtful cases one way or the other. ”

“ The United States recognize no common law. To make a valid contract, the party must not only have a capacity to contract, but the means of exercising that capacity by expressing their assent to its stipulations. ”

“ As applied by the state courts, the new law operated to take part of the commissions earned by plaintiff and to hand it over to his successor on account of an unexerted authority to apply to the court to have the suits carrie on-a step never before deemed necessary or contemplated in connection with collections of such taxes.
It is well understood that the contract clause does not limit the power of a state during the terms of its officers to pass and give effect to laws prescribing for the future the duties to be performed by, or the salaries or other compensation to be paid to, them. ”