In City of Trenton v. New Jersey, 262 U.S. 182, 188, 43 S.Ct. 534, 537, 67 L.Ed. 937 (1923), the state had granted a private waterworks company the right to take, without any fee, all necessary water from the Delaware River. After the city purchased the waterworks company, the state legislature enacted a statute requiring that every municipality pay a fee for water, in excess of a certain amount, taken from the river. The Supreme Court acknowledged that in prior cases it had suggested a possible distinction between contracts involving property owned by cities in their governmental capacity and those involving property owned by them in their proprietary capacity, but pointed out that in none of those cases was any right of a city held to be protected by the Contract Clause. The Court then dismissed the case before it for lack of jurisdiction, reasoning: Such distinction between governmental and proprietary functions furnishes no ground for the application of constitutional restraints here sought to be invoked by the City of Trenton against the State of New Jersey. They do not apply as against the State in favor of its own municipalities. We hold that the City cannot invoke these provisions of the Federal Constitution against the imposition of the license fee or charge for diversion of water specified in the state law here in question.... 262 U.S. at 191-92, 43 S.Ct. at 538.