American Civil Liberties Union v. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

<p>APPEAL from District Court, Canyon County.</p> <p>If the title to an act actually indicates, and the act itself actually embraces, two different objects, when the constitution says it shall embrace but one, the whole act must be treated as' void from the manifest impossibility in the court choosing between the two, and holding the act valid as to one and void as to the other. (Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations, sec. 148, p. 178; Antonio v. Gould, 34 Tex. 49; State v. McCracken, 42 Tex. 383.) “The practice of bringing together into one bill subjects diverse in their nature and having no necessary connection, with a view to combine in their favor the advocates of all, and thus secure the passage of several measures, no one of which could succeed upon its own merits, was one both corruptive of the legislature and dangerous to the state.” (Cooley’s Constitutional Limitations, 172; State v. Silver, 9 Nev. 227; People v. Mahaney, 13 Mich. 481; State v. Pollock,-19 Nev. 384, 12 Pac. 834; Stewart v. Father Matthew Society, 41 Mich. 72, 1 N. W. 931; Walker v. Caldwell, 4 La. 297; State v. Union, 33 N. J. L. 352; State v. Ransom, 73 Mo. 78; People v. Pills, 35 N. Y. 452; State v. Wright, 14 Or. 365, 12 Pac. 708.) Almost any legitimate enterprise, whether it is a banking association or an irrigation association, is indirectly a benefit to the public, but this is not the sense in which the term is used in reference to taking private property for public use. (Savings etc. Assn. v. Topeka, 20 Wall. 455; In re Pequest River, 41 N. J. L. 175.) However salutary a law may be considered in its ultimate objects, unless in its' enforcement there is a method provided for the assessment according to benefits, it cannot under our laws be considered as constitutional. Unless such a provision is made, it will be considered as taking the property without due process of law. No rule of law is better established than that in making special assessments for any purpose, they must be accordin