An unconstitutional Act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; it affords no protection; it creates no office; it is, in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.

Explanation

(English-origin maxim.) Any statute that exceeds the constitutional grant of authority to the legislature is a nullity from the moment of its purported enactment — no citizen is bound to obey it, no officer may enforce it, and no office or right created under it has lawful existence.

Where this applies

• A state enforces a law requiring a license to publish a newspaper, but the court declares it unconstitutional and holds that it never conferred any valid authority on the licensing board.
• A city collects fees under an ordinance later struck down as violating the First Amendment, and taxpayers recover the fees because the void ordinance never created any lawful obligation to pay.
• An officer arrests someone under a statute that exceeds the legislature's constitutional authority, and the court holds the arrest was unlawful because the statute was inoperative from the moment it was passed.