Provision

“ If the end be clearly comprehended within any of the specified powers, and if the measure have an obvious relation to that end, and is not forbidden by any particular provision of the constitution; ”

“ How came the king by a power which the people are afraid to trust, and always obliged to check? Such a power could not be the gift of a wise people, neither can any power, which needs checking, be from God; yet the provision, which the constitution makes, supposes such a power to exist.
26 But the provision is unequal to the task; the means either cannot or will not accomplish the end, and the whole affair is a felo de se; ”

“ But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. ”

“ This is the obvious meaning of the constitutional provision. 'The simplest and most obvious interpretation of a Constitution, if in itself sensible, is the most likely to be that meant by the people in its adoption.' Lamar, Justice, in Lake County v. ”

“ Although it is my will that complete justice be observed in each case, I charge you that, in so far as may be possible, and can be rightly done, you settle the differences and suits which arise, without having recourse to the technicalities of the law or proceeding by the ordinary methods, or condemning to pecuniary fines; but observing throughout the provisions of the decrees that shall be given you. ”

“ That within the provisions prescribed by the Constitution, and by the laws enacted in accordance with the Constitution, the acts and powers of the Government are to be interpreted and applied so as to create and maintain a system, general, equal, and beneficial as a whole. ”

“ Language of a constitutional provision that is plain and unambiguous must be given its obvious and common meaning. Smith, supra; Worth v. City of Rogers, 341 Ark. 12, 14 S.W.3d 471 (2000) ; Daniel v. Jones, 332 Ark. 489, 966 S.W.2d 226 (1998) . Neither rules of construction nor rules of interpretation may be used to defeat the clear and certain meaning of a constitutional provision: Id. ”

“ Particular provisions, though not altogether useless, have far less virtue and efficacy than are commonly ascribed to them; and the want of them will never be, with men of sound discernment, a decisive objection to any plan which exhibits the leading characters of a good Government. ”

“ It is an admitted maxim in the ordinary course of the administration of justice, that the preamble of a statute is a key to open the mind of the makers, as to the mischiefs, which are to be remedied, and the objects, which are to be accomplished by the provisions of the statute. ”

“ Resort may be had to every part of a statute, or, where there is more than one in pari materia, to the whole system, for the purpose of collecting the legislative intention, which is the important inquiry in all cases where provisions are ambiguous or inconsistent. ”

“ These authorities, to which many more might added, are full and express to the point, that where a deed is the foundation of the claim, and can still be regarded as subsisting and in full force between the parties, the action to enforce its provisions must be upon the instrument itself. ”

“ In the absence of all positive authority, it might be proper to resort to these principles, in aid of the manifest purposes of the law. But there are express statuteable provisions, which directly apply to the present case. ”

“ Certain provisions of the Civil Code and the Code of Practice, as well as a number of decisions of the supreme court of the state, are relied upon to support this view all which we shall now consider. ”

“ State v. Commissioners, 37 N. J. Law, 228. This rule applies wherever an act contains general provisions and also special ones upon a subject which, standing alone, the general provisions would include. End. Interp. St. ”

“ But this object is defeated by any interpretation disallowing the test oath.
3. Then comes another rule of interpretation, which is of equal obligation. It is, that we are always to incline so as to protect Liberty and Right; and this rule, for double assurance, is embodied in the very text of the statute whose meaning is now under consideration, being the last section, as follows:—
“That all the provisions of this Act, and of the Acts to which this is supplementary, shall be construed liberally, to the end that all the intents thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out.” ”

“ This long practice amounted to a contemporaneous and continuous construction of the statute by the concurring interpretation of judicial and executive officers charged with the duty of carrying out its provisions. ”

“ For me the only correct meaning of that phrase is that our Government must proceed according to the 'law of the land'-that is, according to written constitutional and statutory provisions as interpreted by court decisions. ”

“ What was the common law before the making of the act ? (b) What was the mischief and defect against which the common law did not provide? (c) What remedy the parliament hath resolved and appointed to cure the disease of the Commonwealth? (d) The true reason of the remedy.” (3) Beneficial or remedial statutes are to be liberally, penal more strictly, construed. (4) Other statutes in pari materia are to be taken into consideration. (5) A statute which treats of persons of inferior rank cannot by general words be extended to those of superior rank. ”

“ Legislation is the declaration or enunciation of a principle by some adequate authority in the body politic; custom is the realisation or embodiment of a principle in a uniformity of practice; precedent is the judicial application of a principle to its appropriate facts; professional or expert opinion is the approval or recognition of a principle by the general voice of those whose business it is to know the law; agreement is the adoption of a principle by the consent of those whose interests are affected by it. ”

“ Wherever an act undertakes to determine a question of right or obligation, or of property, as the foundation upon which it proceeds, such act is to that extent a judicial one, and not the proper exercise of legislative functions. ”

“ But law, strictly speaking, is simply the rule of action itself, as for instance, an Act of Parliament; but as in practice all such rules are enforced by a sanction of some kind, our conception of a law is also united with that of a lawgiver, who has both the right and the power to enforce it. ”

“ Certain general clauses, e.g., that pledging that justice should neither be bought nor sold, and that prescribing that a freeman might not be imprisoned, outlawed, or dispossessed of his property save by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land, meant in effect considerably less than they sometimes have been interpreted to mean. ”

“ Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. Section 2. [§ 1.] The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. [Footnote: Extended by Fourteenth Amendment.] ”

“ Explanations concerning the proper sense of the law given by the supreme court in the name of the king, in the interval between the Diets, may be rejected by the states, and shall not afterwards be valid, or cited by the courts of judicature. Article 89. At the general meetings of the orders of the estates, questions may be proposed for altering, explaining, repealing, and issuing acts concerning public economy; and the principles of public institutions of any kind may be discussed. ”

“ A general or public act is an universal rule, that regards the whole community; and of this the courts of law are bound to take notice judicially and ex officio; without the statute being particularly pleaded, or formally set forth by the party who claims an advantage under it. ”

“ The essence of legislation is to prescribe laws, or regulations for society; while the execution of those laws and regulations, and the employment of the common strength, either for that purpose, or for the common defence, seem to comprise all the functions of the executive magistrate. The power of making treaties is plainly neither the one, nor the other. ”

“ What the difference may be, and what the consequences of such difference, between this lucrative function, and the true duty of Civil Law,—namely, to fulfil and continue in all the world the first mission of the mightiest Lawgiver, and declare that on such and such conditions, written in eternal letters by the finger of God, every man’s house, or piece of Holy land, is his own,—there does not, it appears, exist at present wit enough under all the weight of curled and powdered horsehair in England, either to reflect, or to define. ”

“ There must be an act of solemnity and importance, such as a statute, and that statute must be by a State, a member of the Union and a public body, owing obedience and conformity to its constitution and laws. ”

“ The power to charge being coupled with the condition that the charge shall be reasonable, the state is left free to act on the subject of reasonableness, within the limits of its general authority, as circumstances may require. ”

“ The Constitution is a series of contracts made by each individual with every other of the fourteen millions. A man's oath is evidence of his assent to this contract. If I offer a man the copy of an agreement, and he, after reading, swears to perform it, have I not a right to infer from his oath that he assents to the rightfulness of the articles of that paper? What more solemn form of expressing his assent could he select? A man's oath expresses his conviction of the rightfulness of the actions he promises to do, as well as his determination to do them. ”

“ Legislation, the enactments of a legislature which, whether it take the form of an autocratic prince or of a parliamentary assembly, is the assumed organ of the entire society, is the last of the ameliorating instrumentalities. It differs from Legal Fictions just as Equity differs from them, and it is also distinguished from Equity, as deriving its authority from an external body or person. Its obligatory force is independent of its principles. ”

“ Where the expression is in general terms, statutes are to receive such a construction as may be agreeable to the rules of the common law in cases of that nature, for statutes are not presumed to make any alteration in the common law, beyond what is expressed in the statute. ”

“ An act of the party is any expression of the will or intention of the person concerned, directed to the creation, transfer, or extinction of a right, and effective in law for that purpose; such as a contract or a deed of conveyance. An act of the law, on the other hand, is the creation, extinction, or transfer of a right by the operation of the law itself, independent of any consent thereto on the part of him concerned. ”

“ In the formation of the law, regard should be often had to the convenience, to the faculties, to the interests, and to the habits of the citizens, sometimes even to their prejudices, but in the interpretation of it, nothing but justice should be regarded. ”

“ If we have now ascertained the importance and practicability of a civil code, and have shown what is to be done in order to obtain the benefit of it, we shall conclude, with some confidence, that we have rendered a great service to mankind. ”

“ The sages of the law, in the exposition of treaties, pacts, statutes, testaments, deeds, and other instruments, have used and handed down to us rules which are commended as the dictates of enlightened reason and common sense, whereof the following will suffice for the present, viz.:--
'That the construction be made on the entire instrument, and that one part of it doth help to expound another, and that every word (if it may be) may take effect and none be rejected, and that all the parts do agree together, and there be no discordance therein. ”

“ In interpreting a statute and attempting to construe legislative intent, we look to the language of the statute, the subject matter, the object to be accomplished, the purpose to be served, the remedy provided, legislative history, and other appropriate means that throw light on the subject. ”

“ And We do further direct that you do not propose or assent to any Private Ordinance whatever, whereby the property of any Individual may affected, in which there is not a Saving of the Rights of Us, Our Heirs and Successors, and of all Bodies Politic and Corporate and of all other persons, excepting those at whose instance, or for whose especial benefit, such Ordinance may be passed, and those claiming by, from, through and under them. ”

“ The cases in which the general rule has been adhered to, are, many of them, of a character which strongly test the principle upon which the rule itself is founded. Two or three only need be referred to. ”

“ While it is incumbent upon those claiming under a public grant, as we have already stated, to make out the rights contended for by terms which clearly and unequivocally convey them, and it is enough to deny the privileges contended for if, upon considering the act, the mind rests in doubt and uncertainty as to whether they are intended to be conferred, we think this act can be given a construction which shall give some meaning and effect to the words 'during the life hereof.' Literally construed, the phrase would mean for the life of the act. ”

“ I mean the freeholders of the kingdom. To do justice to the ministry, they have not yet pretended that any one, or any two, of the three estates, have power to make a new law, without the concurrence of the third. ”

“ Their declaration was simply their joint expression of their separate wills; each expressing its own will, and not that of any other; each bound by its own act, and not responsible for the act of any other. ”

“ Therefore, Our Will and Pleasure is, that in any Suit or Suits commenced, or to be commenced in any of our Courts at Westminister, or elsewhere, by the said Treasurer and Company, or otherwise against any such persons, that our Judges for the Time being, both in our Court of Chancery, and at the Common Pleas do favour and further the said Suits so far forth as Law and Equity will in any wise further and permit. ”