The Wheeling Daily Register

James T. Brady on Unconstitutional Laws.

An interesting investigation is in progress before Governor Fenton, at Albany, New York, in the course of which incidental allusion has been made to a point of law which has been somewhat argued in this locality. The case is this:

Charges of malversation in office have been preferred against Mayor Gunther and other municipal officers in the city of New York. The constitution of the State gives to the Governor power to remove certain officials, and an act of the Legislature passed in 1857 extends that power to the removal of other officers than those embraced in the constitutional provision.

The charges against the New York officers are made with a view to their removal in accordance with the law of 1857. Mr. James T. Brady, one of the most eminent lawyers in this country, is attorney for the defendants and claims that the law of 1857 is unconstitutional and gives to the Governor no jurisdiction in those cases. His argument on this point was reported in the New York papers of last Wednesday as follows:

Legislature is omnipotent.

It will be seen that the position assumed by Mr. Brady is identical with that taken by Mr. Lamb, and others in this State, in relation to the Test Oath Law, although in that case the doctrine applies more clearly and indisputably than in the case to which Mr. Brady has applied it. It is a high compliment to Mr. Lamb's legal ability to find that his opinion is sustained by that of one whose learning as a lawyer ranks him second to none at the American bar. The truth is that the doctrine that an unconstitutional law is absolutely void and ought never to be obeyed, is as firmly settled as any legal truth can be.