City of Homewood v. Wofford Oil Co.

BOULDIN, Justice.

Our Federal System fully recognizes the concurrent existence of several distinct governing units or sovereignties functioning in the same territory over the same inhabitants. Thus federal, state, county, and municipal governments are everywhere known, each with a measure of governmental powers, legislative, executive, and judicial. Each is empowered to levy taxes for the purpose of carrying on the special functions of government for which it exists. One act or omission may be a violation of the laws of two or more such sovereign-ties, a conviction under one being no bar to a…