Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/90363/hare-vs-rice
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 14:24:02+00:00

Document:
Although a federal right may not have been specially set up in the original petition or earlier proceedings, if it clearly and unmistakably appears from the opinion of the state court under review that a federal question was assumed by the highest court of the state to be in issue, and was actually decided against the federal claim, and such decision was essential to the judgment rendered, this Court has jurisdiction to reexamine that question on writ of error.
In granting lands for educational purposes to Montana by § 17 of the Enabling Act of February 22, 1889, 25 Stat. 676, to be held, appropriated, etc., in such manner as the legislature of the state should provide, Congress intended to designate, and the act will be so construed, such legislature as should be established by the constitution to be adopted, and which should act as a parliamentary body in subordination to that constitution, and it did not give the management and disposal of such lands to the legislature or its members independently of the methods and limitations prescribed by the constitution of the state.
Whether a state statute relating to the disposition of such lands and their proceeds is or is not repugnant to the state constitution is for the state court to determine, and its decision is conclusive here.
Where the claim that the construction given to a state statute by the highest court of the state impairs the obligation of a contract appears for the first time in the petition for writ of error from this Court, it comes too late to give this Court jurisdiction of that question even though another federal question has been properly raised and brought here by the same writ of error.
"To the State of Montana: for the establishment and maintenance of a school of mines, one hundred thousand acres; for State Normal Schools, one hundred thousand acres; for agricultural colleges, in addition to the grant hereinbefore made for that purpose, fifty thousand cares; for the establishment of a state reform school, fifty thousand acres; for the establishment of a deaf and dumb asylum, fifty thousand acres; for public buildings at the capital of the state, in addition to the grant hereinbefore made for that purpose, one hundred and fifty thousand acres."
". . . And the lands granted by this section shall be held, appropriated, and disposed of exclusively for the purposes herein mentioned, in such manner as the legislature of the respective states may severally provide. "
"the state hereby accepts the several grants of land from the United States to the State of Montana, . . . upon the terms and conditions therein provided."
State Normal School building at Dillon, Montana, and shall be paid out for such purpose by the State Treasurer upon vouchers approved by the executive board of the State Normal School, and allowed and ordered paid by the State Board of Examiners."
The law further provided that all sums realized from the sale of, or the leasing of, or from licenses to cut trees on, the lands granted for the State Normal School by section 17 of the Enabling Act should be pledged as security for the payment of the principal and interest of the bonds issued under the act, and should be set apart as a separate fund for that purpose. It was made the duty of the State Treasurer to keep such money in a fund to be designated as the State Normal School fund, and to pay therefrom the principal and interest of the bonds authorized by the act.
"The funds of the state university and all other state institutions of learning, from whatever source accruing, shall forever remain inviolate and sacred to the purpose for which they were dedicated. The various funds shall be respectively invested under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and shall be guaranteed by the state against loss or diversion. The interest of said invested funds, together with the rents from leased lands or properties, shall be devoted to the maintenance and perpetution of these respective institutions."
The bonds authorized by the foregoing law of the State of Montana were duly offered for sale, and purchased by the State Board of Land Commissioners themselves as an investment of the common school fund of the state.
3. Because the court misconstrued section 12, article XI, of the Constitution of Montana.
"I. The said court erred in holding and deciding that the act of Congress, approved February 22, 1889, providing, among other things, for the admission of Montana into the Union, and known as the 'Enabling Act,' does not authorize the Legislative Assembly of the State of Montana to appropriate or apply the proceeds derived from the sale or leasing of the lands granted to said state by section 17 of said act for State Normal Schools, or from the sale of the timber thereon, to the establishment of such schools."
"II. The court erred in holding that section 12 of article XI of the Constitution of the state, as construed by said court, is not repugnant to section 17 of said act of Congress, and is valid."
"III. The court erred in holding and deciding that section 12 of article XI of the Constitution of the State of Montana, as construed by said court, does not impair the obligation of the contract resulting from the acceptance of the grant of lands made to the State of Montana by section 17 of said act of Congress."
"IV. The court erred in holding and deciding that the proceeds derived from the sale of said lands and the timber thereon constitute a permanent fund, no part of which can be used to establish a State Normal School, or for any other purpose, except that of investment."
"V. The court erred in holding and deciding that the interest received from the investment of the proceeds of the sale of said lands and the timber thereon, together with the rents derived from leasing said lands, can be used only for the purpose of maintaining and perpetuating a State Normal School. "
"VI. The court erred in holding and deciding that the act of the legislative assembly of the State of Montana, entitled 'An Act to Enable the Normal School Land Grant to be Further Utilized in Providing Additional Buildings and Equipment for the state Normal School College,' approved February 2, 1905, is invalid, as being in conflict with section 12 of article XI of the Constitution of the State of Montana."
"VII. The court erred in denying the application of plaintiff in error for a writ of mandate. "
"where any title, right, privilege, or immunity is claimed under the Constitution, or any treaty or statute of, or commission held or authority exercised under, the United States, and the decision is against the title, right, privilege, or immunity specially set up or claimed, by either party, under such Constitution, treaty, statute, commission or authority."
Third. That if it were in violation of that Constitution, the law enacted in pursuance of an authority granted by the United States was valid and effective notwithstanding. All three of these claims were denied by the state court. The first and third are clearly claims of a "right under an authority exercised under the United States," and therefore raised a federal question. Maguire v. Tyler, 1 Black 195. But it is not enough that a claim of a federal right arose upon the facts. It must also appear affirmatively that the right was "specially set up." No reference was made to any federal right in the petition for the writ of mandamus, the demurrer, or the motion to quash, and the petition for a rehearing, where the federal question was first brought forward by the plaintiff in error, so far as the record discloses, was denied by the court. It is not enough that the federal question was first presented by a petition for rehearing unless that question was thereupon considered and passed on adversely by the court. Corkran Oil & Development Co. v. Arnaudet, 199 U. S. 182 .
"But, on behalf of the relator, it is contended that, by the terms of section 17 of the Enabling Act the lands granted to the state for normal school purposes are to be held, appropriated, and disposed of [exclusively] for normal school purposes, in such manner as the legislature of Montana may provide, and that this act is sufficiently broad to warrant the legislature in borrowing money and pledging such lands for the payment of the principal and interest. And it is further contended that, if section 12 of article XI of the Constitution contravenes the provisions of section 17 of the Enabling Act, section 12 is invalid and of no force or effect,"
which was decided adversely to the contentions stated. The decision of both questions, as the court determined them, was essential to the judgment rendered, and the decision of the second was a distinct denial of the federal right claimed by the plaintiff in error. Where it clearly and unmistakably appears from the opinion of the state court under review that a federal question was assumed by the highest court of the state to be in issue, was actually decided against the federal claim, and the decision of the question was essential to the judgment rendered, it is sufficient to give this Court authority to reexamine that question on writ of error. San Jose Land & Water Co. v. San Jose Ranch Co., 189 U. S. 177 . Applying this rule to the case, there is jurisdiction to reexamine the claim of the plaintiff in error on its merits.
of that body, that the authority over these lands was given by the Enabling Act. It follows, therefore, that, in executing the authority entrusted to it by Congress, the legislature must act in subordination to the state constitution, and we think that, in so holding, the supreme court of the state committed no error.
It is further claimed by the plaintiff in error that the supreme court of the state erred in holding that the law under which the bonds were issued and the proceeds of public lands devoted to their payment was repugnant to the Constitution of the state. Upon this question, the decision of that court is conclusive, and plainly we have no power to review it.
It is further urged that the construction given by the state court to its Constitution impaired the obligation of a contract, resulting from the acceptance of the granted lands by the State of Montana, and that this impariment was in violation of the Constitution of the United States. Nothing more need be said of that claim than that it appears for the first time in the petition for a writ of error from this Court and the accompanying assignment of errors. This is not sufficient to give this Court jurisdiction of any federal question ( Corkran v. Arnaudet, ub. supra ), even though another federal question has been properly raised and brought here by the same writ of error, Dewey v. Des Moines, 173 U. S. 193 .
Other questions were argued, but the view we have taken of the case renders it unnecessary to consider them.

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