in such a way as to be prejudicial to the competition of bidders and to deter bidders; and the completion of the contracts after being attempted to be let was permitted to lag in such a manner as not to comply with the contract, charter or laws, and the power to let the contract attempted to be let was not within the power of the parties attempting to let the same; because the city council is or was by some of the proceedings deprived of legislative discretion, and the board of public works and other pretended bodies given such discretion, which discretion. they delegated to others having no right or power to exercise the same; and executive functions were conferred on bodies having no right, power or authority to exercise the same and taken away from others to whom such power was attempted to be granted or given or who should properly exercise the same; that judicial power was attempted to be conferred on the board of public works, so called, and the city council, and other bodies or pretended bodies not judicial or quasi-judicial in character, having no right, power or authority to exercise the same, and the courts attempted to be deprived thereof.

"Wherefore, because of the foregoing and numerous other good and sufficient reasons, the undersigned object and protest against the passage of the said proposed assessing ordinance."

This certainly was a complaint against and objection to the proposed assessment. Instead of affording the plaintiffs in error an opportunity to be heard upon its allegations, the city council, without notice to them, met as a board of equalization, not in a stated but in a specially called session, and, without any hearing, adopted the following resolution:

"Whereas, complaints have been filed by the various persons and firms as the owners of real estate included within the Eighth Avenue Paving District No. 1, of the city of Denver against the proposed assessments on said property for the cost of said paving, the names and description of the real estate respectively owned by such persons being more particularly described in the various complaints filed with the city clerk; and

"Whereas, no complaint or objection has been filed or made

against the apportionment of said assessment made by the board of public works of the city of Denver, but the complaints and objections filed deny wholly the right of the city to assess any district or portion of the assessable property of the city of Denver; therefore, be it

"Resolved, by the city council of the city of Denver, sitting as a board of equalization, that the apportionments of said assessment made by said board of public works be, and the same are hereby, confirmed and approved."

Subsequently, without further notice or hearing, the city council enacted the ordinance of assessment whose validity is to be determined in this case. The facts out of which the question on this assignment arises may be compressed into small compass. The first step in the assessment proceedings was by the certificate of the board of public works of the cost of the improvement and a preliminary apportionment of it. The last step was the enactment of the assessment ordinance. From beginning to end of the proceedings the landowners, although allowed to formulate and file complaints and objections, were not afforded an opportunity to be heard upon them. Upon these facts was there a denial by the State of the due process of law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?

In the assessment, apportionment and collection of taxes upon property within their jurisdiction the Constitution of the United States imposes few restrictions upon the States. In the enforcement of such restrictions as the Constitution does impose this court has regarded substance and not form. But where the legislature of a State, instead of fixing the tax itself, commits to some subordinate body the duty of determining whether, in what amount, and upon whom it shall be levied, and of making its assessment and apportionment, due process of law requires that at some stage of the proceedings before the tax becomes irrevocably fixed, the taxpayer shall have an opportunity to be heard, of which he must have notice, either personal, by publication, or by a law fixing the time and place VOL. CCX-25

of the hearing. Hager v. Reclamation District, 111 U. S. 701; Kentucky Railroad Tax Cases, 115 U. S. 321; Winona & St. Peter Land Co. v. Minnesota, 159 U. S. 526, 537; Lent v. Tillson, 140 U. S. 316; Glidden v. Harrington, 189 U. S. 255; Hibben v. Smith, 191 U. S. 310; Security Trust Co. v. Lexington, 203 U. S. 323; Central of Georgia v. Wright, 207 U. S. 127. It must be remembered that the law of Colorado denies the landowner the right to object in the courts to the assessment, upon the ground that the objections are cognizable only by the board of equalization.

If it is enough that, under such circumstances, an opportunity is given to submit in writing all objections to and complaints of the tax to the board, then there was a hearing afforded in the case at bar. But we think that something more than that, even in proceeding for taxation, is required by due process of law. Many requirements essential in strictly judicial proccedings may be dispensed with in proceedings of this nature. But even here a hearing in its very essence demands that he who is entitled to it shall have the right to support his allegations by argument however brief, and, if need be, by proof, however informal. Pittsburg &c. Railway Co. v. Backus, 154 U. S. 421, 426; Fallbrook Irrigation District v. Brauley, 164 U. S. 112, 171, et seq. It is apparent that such a hearing was denied to the plaintiffs in error. The denial was by the city council, which, while acting as a board of equalization, represents the State. Raymond v. Chicago Traction Co., 207 U. S. 20. The assessment was therefore void, and the plaintiffs in error were entitled to a decree discharging their lands from a lien on account of it. It is not now necessary to consider the tenth assignment of

error.

Judgment reversed.

THE CHIEF JUSTICE and MR. JUSTICE HOLMES dissent.

PIERCE v. CREECY, CHIEF OF POLICE OF THE CITY OF ST. LOUIS.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI.

No. 357. Argued April 20, 21, 1908.-Decided June 1, 1908.

Whether or not the indictment on which the demand for petitioner's surrender for interstate extradition is based charges him with crime within the requirements of Article IV, § 2, par. 2, of the Federal Constitution, involves the construction of that instrument, and a direct appeal lies to this court from the Circuit Court under § 5 of the Judiciary Act of 1891. While no person may be lawfully extradited from one State to another under Article IV, § 2, par. 2 of the Federal Constitution unless he has been charged with crime in the latter State, there is no constitutional requirement that there should be anything more than a charge of crime, and an indictment which clearly describes the crime charged is sufficient even though it may possibly be bad as a pleading.

The Federal courts cannot, on habeas corpus, inquire into the truth of an allegation presenting mixed questions of law and fact in the indictment on which the demand for petitioner's interstate extradition is based; and quare whether it may inquire whether such indictment was or was not found in good faith.

A Federal court should not, unless plainly required so to do by the Constitution, assume a duty the exercise of which might lead to a miscarriage of justice prejudicial to the interests of a State.

THIS is an appeal directly to this court from a judgment of the Circuit Court upon a writ of habeas corpus, remanding the petitioner, now appellant, to the custody of the respondent, now appellee. The petition for the writ of habeas corpus alleges that the petitioner was "imprisoned, detained, confined and restrained of his liberty, at the city of St. Louis, within the district aforesaid, by Edmund P. Creecy, the chief of police of said .city of St. Louis, in violation of the laws and Constitution of the United States." There is no dispute about the facts, which, as they appear in the petition and the return, are as follows.

The Governor of the State of Texas made a requisition upon the Governor of the State of Missouri, which is as follows:

"To the Governor of the State of Missouri:

Whereas, it appears by the annexed documents, which are hereby certified to be authentic, that H. Clay Pierce stands. charged with false swearing, committed in the State of Texas, and information having been received that the said H. Clay Pierce has fled from justice and has taken refuge in Missouri.

"Now, therefore, I, T. M. Campbell, Governor of the State of Texas, have thought proper, in pursuance of the provisions of the Constitution and laws of the United States, to demand the surrender of the said H. Clay Pierce as fugitive from justice, and that he be delivered to G. S. Mathews, who is hereby appointed the agent, on the part of the State of Texas, to receive H. Clay Pierce.

"Given under my hand and seal of the State, affixed at the city of Austin, this 11th day of February, A. D. 1907, and of the independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and thirty-first, and of Texas the seventy-first year.

"T. M. CAMPBELL, Governor."

To this requisition was attached a certified copy of an indictment against the petitioner. The indictment is as follows:

"In the name and by the authority of the State of Texas. "The grand jurors of Travis County, in said State, duly empaneled, sworn and charged as such at the September term, A. D. 1906, of the District Court of said county, in and for the Fifty-third Judicial District, upon their oaths, in said court, present: That Henry Clay Pierce, in said county and State, on or about the 31st day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred, and before the presentment of this indictment, did then and there present himself and make his personal appearance before N. H. Nagle, a duly and legally qualified and acting notary public within and for the county of Travis and State of Texas, who was then and there duly authorized by law as such officer and notary public to administer an oath; and the said