Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/175

 reference to the passenger rate act and the orders of the Com- mission, were not sufficient to be compensatory, and were n fact confiscatory, and the act was therefore unconstitutional. The injunction was thereupon granted with reference to the enforcement of the commodity act. We have., therefore, upon this record the case of an uncon- stitutional act of the state legislature and an intention by the Attorney General of the State to endeavor to enforce its pro- visions, to the injury of the company, in compelling it, at great expense, to defend legal proceedings of a complicated and un- usual character, and involving questions of vast importance to all employes and officers of the company, as well as to the company itself. The question hat arises is whether there is a remedy that the parties intere. ted may resort to, by going into a Federal court of equity, in a case involving a violation of the F.ederal Constitution, and obtaining a judicial inyesti- gation of the problem, and pending its solution obtain free- dom from suits, civil or criminal, by a temporary injunction, and if the question be finally decided favorably to the con- tention of the company, a permanent injunction restraining all such actions or proceedings. This inquiry necessitates an examination of the most ma- terial and important objection made to the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court, the objection being that the suit is, in effect, one against the State of Minnesota, and that the injunction issued against the Attorney General illegally prohibits state action, either criminal or civil, to enforce obedience to the. statutes of the State. This objection is to be considered with reference to the Eleventh and Fourteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. The Eleventh Amendment prohibits the commencement or prosecution of any suit against one of the United States by citizens of another State. or citizens or subjects of .any foreign State. The Fourteenth Amendment pro- vide that no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall it deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the lab, s.

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