[1734] Wright, The Contract Clause, 91-100.
[1735] Perry v. United States, 294 U.S. 330 (1935); Louisville Joint Stock Bank v. Radford, 295 U.S. 555 (1935). The Court has pointed out, what of course, is evident on a reading of the Constitution, that the contract clause is a limitation on the powers of the States and not of the United States. Central P.R. Co. v. Gallatin (Sinking Fund Cases), 99 U.S. 700, 718 (1879). See also Mitchell v. Clark, 110 U.S. 633, 643 (1884); Legal Tender Cases, 12 Wall. 457, 529 (1871); Continental Ill. Nat. Bank & Trust Co. v. Chicago, R.I. & P.R. Co., 294 U.S. 648 (1935); St. Anthony Falls Water Power Co. v. Board of Water Commissioners, 168 U.S. 349, 372 (1897); Dubuque, S.C.R. Co. v. Richmond, 19 Wall. 584 (1874); New York v. United States, 257 U.S. 591 (1922). Cf. however, Hepburn v. Griswold, 8 Wall. 603, 623 (1870); and Central Pacific R.R. Co. v. Gallatin (Sinking Fund Cases), 99 U.S. 700, 737 (1879).
[1736] See, e.g., Neblett et al. v. Carpenter, et al., 305 U.S. 297 (1938); Asbury Hospital v. Cass County, 326 U.S. 207 (1945); Connecticut Mutual L. Ins. Co. v. Moore, 333 U.S. 541 (1948). For a notable case in which the obligations clause was mustered into service, by rather heroic logic, to do work that was afterwards put upon the due process clause, see State Tax On Foreign-Held Bonds, 15 Wall. 300 (1873).
[1737] Hooven & Allison Co. v. Evatt, 324 U.S. 652, 673 (1945).
[1738] Woodruff v. Parham, 8 Wall. 123 (1869).
[1739] 12 Wheat. 419 (1827).
[1740] Ibid. 441.
[1741] May & Co. v. New Orleans, 178 U.S. 496, 502 (1900).
[1742] Ibid. 501; Gulf Fisheries Co. v. MacInerney, 276 U.S. 124 (1928); McGoldrick v. Gulf Oil Corp., 309 U.S. 414 (1940).
[1743] Low v. Austin, 13 Wall. 29 (1872); May & Co. v. New Orleans, 178 U.S. 496 (1900).