solubly bound up with the application for a permit that could not be issued, unless the stipulation was given which made the permit specially subject to each of the provisions of the act, including the provision not to remove. It is clear from the whole case that the stipulation not to remove was regarded as the material part, and the case was decided on that foundation. Mr. Justice Blatchford said:

"The statute is not separable into parts. An affirmative provision requiring the filing by a foreign corporation, with the Secretary of State, of a copy of its articles of incorporation, and of an authority for the service of process upon a designated officer or agent in the State, might not be an unreasonable or objectionable requirement, if standing alone; but the manner in which, in this statute, the provisions on those subjects are coupled with the application for the permit, and with the stipulation referred to, shows that the real and only object of the statute, and its substantial provision, is the requirement of the stipulation not to remove the suit into the Federal court." For this reason the statute was held void.

Reference is then made in the opinion to the Morse case, 20 Wall. supra, wherein it was stated that agreements in advance to oust the court of a jurisdiction conferred by law were illegal and void, and that parties could not bind themselves in advance by such an agreement thus to forfeit their rights at all times and on all occasions, whenever the case might be presented.

The Doyle case, 94 U. S. supra, was also referred to, and Mr. Justice Blatchford said in regard to it as follows:

"The point of the decision seems to have been, that, as the State had granted the license, its officers would not be restrained by injunction, by a court of the United States, from withdrawing it. All that there is in the case beyond this, and all that is said in the opinion which appears to be in conflict with the adjudication in Insurance Co. v. Morse, must be regarded as not in judgment."

This is the language which it is contended overrules the Doyle

case. We do not think so. A reference to the Doyle case will show that the first part of the above-quoted statement is inaccurate, as the case does not seem to have been decided upon the proposition that an injunction was improper from a court of the United States to state officers. The Morse case was referred to and approved, and the court held there was nothing inconsistent between the two cases. The Doyle opinion proceeds upon that theory.

If it had been the intention of the court in Barron v. Burnside to overrule the Doyle case, it was easy to have said so. Instead of that, the opinion rests upon the ground of the agreement to be exacted as a condition of granting the permit, and that the statute was not separable into parts, and it was held that the requirement of such a stipulation was void. It was not held that such a statute as the one of Kentucky now under consideration was void. Such statute exacts no agreement or stipulation in any form or in any part of the statute.

In Southern Pacific Co. v. Denton, 146 U. S. 202, 207, the same principle was stated, although the question was not directly involved, as the case was brought in the Federal court and the corporation contended it was not served with process in the proper district and that the court was on that account without jurisdiction. The court, per Mr. Justice Gray, in the course of the opinion, remarked that a statute requiring the corporation as a condition precedent to obtaining a permit to do business within the State, to surrender a right and privilege secured by the Federal Constitution and laws, was unconstitutional and void. (Page 207.) It was the same, in substance, as the Iowa statute, which was held void on account of the exaction of the agreement.

In Barrow Steamship Co. v. Kane, 170 U. S. 100, Justice Gray, in delivering the opinion of the court, again stated what was regarded as the holding in the two cases of Insurance Co. v. Morse and Barron v. Burnside, and said that "statutes requiring foreign corporations, as a condition of being permitted to do business within the State, to stipulate not to remove into

the courts of the United States suits brought against them in the courts of the State, have been adjudged to be unconstitutional and void." It was the exaction of a stipulation or agreement that rendered the statute illegal.

It is also said in Blake v. McClung, 172 U. S. 239, 255, that a statute providing that a stipulation should be made that the company would not remove a case into a Federal court was void because it made the right to do business under the license or permit depend upon the surrender by the corporation of a privilege secured to it by the Constitution.

It is urged that the Iowa and Texas statutes do not require an agreement not to remove. But those statutes do require such agreement. The Iowa statute provided that the application for a permit should contain a stipulation that the permit should be subject to each of the provisions of the act, among which was one that the corporation should forfeit the permit if it should remove the case. This was held to be, in effect, a stipulation not to remove, exacted as a condition for granting the permit. And so the court said:

"As the Iowa statute makes the right to a permit dependent upon the surrender by the foreign corporation of a privilege secured to it by the Constitution and laws of the United States, the statute requiring the permit must be held to be void." Barron v. Burnside, supra, page 200.

In other words, the statute was regarded as exacting an agreement in advance not to remove a case, and such being the fact it was held that the statute was-void. The Texas statute is to the same effect as that of Iowa.

The most that can be contended for is that the Barron case holds that where the statute exacts a stipulation in advance, as a condition of granting a permit, and the statute is not separable into parts, the whole statute is void, and a provision for withdrawing the permit, if a case is removed, is not saved. That principle, as we have said, does not touch this case, as there is no exaction of a stipulation at any time.

It has not been decided that a statute which has no require

ment for a stipulation or agreement not to remove is void, if there be simply a provision therein for a revocation of the permit, such as is contained in the statute under review.

As a State has power to refuse permission to a foreign insurance company to do business at all within its confines, and as it has power to withdraw that permission when once given, without stating any reason for its action, the fact that it may give what some may think a poor reason or none for a valid act is immaterial.

Counsel for the companies, in their brief admit that the State "has the right at any time to pass a statute expelling a company or revoking its license, and the validity of the statute of expulsion would not be affected by the motives of the State in so doing even though the preamble expressly recited that the license was revoked because the company had removed a case. The statute would be valid-for the company had no constitutional right to remain in the State any longer than it chose to allow; and the statute would not abridge any right of removal for as the case had already been fully removed before the statute was in existence, the right of removal could not be said to have been hindered or abridged by a statute not even in existence."

Thus it is admitted that a State has power to prevent a company from coming into its domain, and that it has power to take away its right to remain after having been permitted once to enter, and that right may be exercised from good or bad motives; but what the companies deny is the right of a State to enact in advance that if a company remove a case to a Federal court its license shall be revoked.

We think this distinction is not well founded. The truth is that the effect of the statute is simply to place foreign insurance companies upon a par with the domestic ones doing business in Kentucky. No stipulation or agreement being required as a condition for coming into the State and obtaining a permit to do business therein, the mere enactment of a statute which, in substance, says if you choose to exercise your right to reVOL. CCII-17

DAY and HARLAN, JJ., dissenting.

202 U. S.

move a case into a Federal court, your right to further do business within the State shall cease and your permit shall be withdrawn, is not open to any constitutional objection. The reasoning in the Doyle case we think is good.

The orders heretofore entered dismissing the writs of error in these cases are set aside, and the judgments of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky are

Affirmed.

MR. JUSTICE DAY, with whom concurs MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, dissenting.

In view of the importance and far-reaching effect of the decision just announced, and being unable to concur therein, we have deemed it not improper to briefly state the grounds upon which our objection to the decision of the court rests.

Certain principles of constitutional law are firmly settled by the decisions of this court and need no citation of cases in their support. The Constitution of the United States and the laws passed in pursuance thereof are the supreme law of the land, and of controlling authority over all the people, and in all the States of the Union. It is equally well settled that the privilege of resorting to the Federal courts for litigation of rights in controversies between citizens of different States is created by and exercised under authority of the Constitution of the United States, which secures to citizens of another State, when sued by a citizen of a State in which the suit is brought, the absolute right to remove their cases into the Federal court upon compliance with the terms of the act of Congress enacted to effect that purpose. This principle was announced in terms in Insurance Company v. Morse, 20 Wall. 445, has never been questioned, and is affirmed in frequent decisions of this court. No state regulation in hostility to this principle can be recognized without endangering the supremacy of the National Constitution.

The Kentucky statute imposes but a single condition neces