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Subject Area: Law
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

§ 233.: The exercise of police power by municipal corporations.— - Christopher G. Tiedeman, A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, vol. 2 [1900]

Edition used:

A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint (St. Louis: The F.H. Thomas Law Book Co., 1900). Vol. 2.

Part of: A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, 2 vols.

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§ 233.

The exercise of police power by municipal corporations.—

A large part of the police power of the State is exercised by the local governments of municipal corporations; and the extent of their police power depends upon the limitations of their charters. They are creatures of the State, and the superior control of the State is almost without limit. The police power of a municipal corporation must depend upon the will of the legislature, and in order that a city, town or county may exercise a particular police power, it must be fairly included in the grant of powers by the charter. The construction of the common phraseology of municipal charters, in order to determine what police powers fell within their provisions, would consume too much space to justify an exhaustive discussion in this connection. The subject has already received a full and able treatment by a distinguished American jurist,3 and does not fall properly within the scope of a treatise on the constitutional limitation upon the American police power. For these reasons, no attempt has been made to present rules for the construction of the charter grants of police power to municipal corporations. The police regulations of a municipal corporation only concern us in this connection, when they contravene some constitutional limitation, and from this standpoint all the ordinary police regulations have been criticised in these pages.

[3]See Dillon on Municipal Corporations, and Tiedeman’s Municipal Corporations, Chapter VIII.