State v. Mott

Whatever power can be properly exercised by the municipal authorities of the city of Baltimore over the rights and property of the citizen, under the denomination of police regulations, must be derived from the Legislature of the State. It must be by express grant, or by fair and reasonable intendment; for otherwise the trades and business of the people would be at the mercy, and be made dependent upon the caprice, of those who might ex*304ercise municipal power, instead of being governed and regulated by the general law of the land. Within the power granted, the degree of necessity or propriety…