Weber v. Rogan

Background

An individual applied to buy isolated and detached sections of public free school land under a state law that said such sections "may be sold to any purchaser" at one dollar per acre. The state Supreme Court first read the word "may" as mandatory and then, on rehearing, held the word was discretionary and that the land commissioner could refuse to sell. The applicant then argued, after the rehearing, that the statute had created a binding state contract and that the state court’s construction impaired that contract.

Reasoning

The central question was whether the statute created an enforceable contract obligating the state to sell those lands at one dollar per acre. The Court agreed with the state Supreme Court that the statute did not create a contract. The opinion explains that the federal courts do not have jurisdiction to review a state court’s construction of a statute as an impairment of contract when the statute’s validity is not challenged, and that raising the federal contract claim only after a rehearing came too late.

Real world impact

As a result, the state land office’s discretion to refuse or grant sales of these isolated school sections remains intact. People who apply for such land cannot rely on a federal remedy simply because they think a state law created an automatic sale right. The Court dismissed the writ of error, so the state court’s interpretation stands.