Thomas M. Cooley - Cooley Doctrine

Cooley Doctrine

In a contrasting legal theorem to that of Dillon's Rule (which posits that towns and cities have no independent authority except as explicitly allowed under a State) the Cooley Doctrine proposed a legal theory of an inherent but constitutionally-permitted right to local self-determination. In a concurring opinion, Cooley, J., wrote “local government is matter of absolute right; and the state cannot take it away.”