office creates a contract in the
sense of article I, section 10, whether as to tenure, or salary, or
duties, all of which remain, so far as the Constitution of the United
States is concerned, subject to legislative modification or outright
repeal.[1633] Indeed there can be no such thing in this country as
property in office, although the common law sustained a different view
which sometimes found reflection in early cases.[1634] When, however,
services have once been rendered, there arises an implied contract that
they shall be compensated at the rate which was in force at the time
they were rendered.[1635] Also, an express contract between the State
and an individual for the performance of specific services falls within
the protection of the Constitution. Thus a contract made by the governor
pursuant to a statute authorizing the appointment of a commissioner to
conduct, over a period of years, a geological, mineralogical, and
agricultural survey of the State, for which a definite sum had been
authorized, was held to have been impaired by repeal of the
statute.[1636] But a resolution of a New Jersey local board of education
reducing teachers' salaries for the school year 1933-1934, pursuant to
an act of the legislature authorizing such action, was held not to
impair the contract of a teacher who, having served three years, was by
earlier legislation exempt from having his salary reduced except for
inefficiency or misconduct.[1637] Similarly, it was held that an
Illinois statute which reduced the annuity payable to retire teachers
under an earlier act did not violate the contracts clause, since it had
not been the intention of the earlier act to propose a contract but only
to put into effect a general policy.[1638] On the other hand, the right
of one, who had become a "permanent teacher" under the Indiana Teachers
Tenure Act of 1927, to continued employment was held to be contractual
and to have been impaired by the repeal in 1933 of the earlier
act.[1639]

Revocable Privileges Versus "Contracts": Tax Exemptions.--From
a different point of view, the Court has sought to distinguish between
grants of privileges, whether to individuals or to corporations, which
are contracts and those which are mere revocable licenses, although on
account of the doctrine of presumed consideration mentioned earlier,
this has not always been easy to do. In pursuance of the precedent set
in New Jersey _v._ Wilson,[1640] the legislature of a S