DILLON’S RULE
Dillon’s rule.The doctrine that a unit of local government may exercise only those powers
that the state expressly grants to it, the powers necessarily and fairly implied from that grant, and
the powers that are indispensable to the existence of the unit of local government. • For the origins
of this rule, see 1 John F. Dillon, The Law of Municipal Corporations § 89, at 115 (3d ed. 1881).
[Cases: Municipal Corporations 57. C.J.S. Municipal Corporations §§ 104, 106, 108, 110–115,
117–118, 122, 137–138, 143, 145–146.] [Blacks Law 8th]