In 1697 King William III incorporated Trinity Church in the City of New
York, confirming to the society the possession of a parcel of land,
adjoining the church, to be used as a churchyard for the burial of the
dead. In 1823 the government of New York prohibited interments within
the city limits, thus closing the churchyard for the purposes for which
it had been granted. As compensation was refused, it appeared to be a
clear case of confiscation, and Trinity resisted. In the teeth of recent
precedents the Supreme Court of New York decided that, under the _Police
Power_, the legislature of New York might authorize this sort of
appropriation of private property for sanitary purposes, without paying
the owners for any loss they might thereby sustain.[20]
The court thus simply dispensed the legislature from obedience to the
law, saying in effect, "although the Constitution forbids impairing
contracts, and although this is a contract which you have impaired, yet,
in our discretion, we suspend the operation of the Constitution, in this
instance, by calling your act an exercise of a power unknown to the
framers of the Constitution.
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