attempt of a State officer to enforce an unconstitutional statute is a proceeding without authority of, and does not affect, the State in its sovereignty or governmental capacity, and is an illegal act, and the officer is stripped of his official character, and is subjected in his person to the consequences of his individual conduct." Ex parte Young, 209 U. S. 123.
In the McConnell case we were of the opinion that the facts brought the case strictly within the general doctrine announced by Chief Justice Marshall in Osborn v. United States Bank, 9 Wheat. 738, to the effect that a State officer will be restrained from executing an unconstitutional statute of the State when to execute it would violate rights and privileges of the complainant which had been guaranteed by the Constitution and would work irreparable damage and injury to him. In Pennoyer v. McConnaughy, 140 U. S. 1, 9, complainants sought to restrain the defendants, officials of the State, from violating, under an unconstitutional act, the complainants' contract with the State, and thereby working irreparable damage to the property rights of the complainants. The court held that such a proceeding was not a suit against the State, and said that the general doctrine of the "great and leading case of Osborn v. Bank of United States," as above stated, "has never been departed from."
If officers acting under an unconstitutional statute can be restrained from committing acts of wrong and injury to the vested rights of a complainant under a contract with the State, for a much stronger reason will officers be restrained from invading and destroying the rights of another under a contract with the State where such officers are acting without any color of authority whatever. This they were doing in the McConnell case. The withdrawal of the convicts which the Brick Company had in its possession, and which the board were attempting to do under their void resolution and order, would have meant an irreparable loss to the Brick Company, as the facts show, of many thousands of dollars. The Brick Company had a property right in the labor of the convicts.
It would make this opinion too long to review all the cases in this country supporting the doctrine announced in the McConnell case. It had long been an established doctrine in this State before that case was decided. In Crawford v. Carson, 35 Ark.
