Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
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| Cherokee Nation v. Georgia | ||||||||||
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| Decided March 18, 1831 |
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| Holding | ||||||||||
| The Supreme Court did not have original jurisdiction under Article III of the Constitution to hear a suit brought by the Cherokee Nation, which as an Indian tribe, was not a sovereign nation. | ||||||||||
| Court membership | ||||||||||
| Chief Justice: John Marshall Associate Justices: William Johnson, Gabriel Duvall, Joseph Story, Smith Thompson, John McLean, Henry Baldwin |
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| Case opinions | ||||||||||
| Majority by: Marshall Joined by: McLean Concurrence by: Johnson Concurrence by: Baldwin Dissent by: Thompson (joined by Story) |
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| Laws applied | ||||||||||
| U.S. Const. art. III | ||||||||||
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, , was a United States Supreme Court decision.
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[edit] Background
On December 20, 1828, the state of Georgia, fearful that the United States would not affect (as a matter of Federal policy) the removal of the Cherokee Nation tribal band from their historic lands in Georgia; enacted a series of laws which stripped the Cherokee of their rights under the laws of the state, with the intention to force the Cherokee to leave the state. In this climate, John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation tribal band, led a delegation to Washington in January 1829 to resolve disputes over the non-payment of annuities to the Cherokee, and to seek Federal sustainment of the boundary between the territory of the state of Georgia and the Cherokee Nation's historic tribal lands within that state. Rather than lead the delegation into futile negotiations with President Jackson, Ross wrote an immediate memorial to Congress, completely forgoing the customary correspondence and petitions with the President.
Ross found support in Congress from individuals in the National Republican Party such as Senators Henry Clay, Theodore Frelinghuysen, and Daniel Webster and Representatives Ambrose Spencer and David (Davy) Crockett. Despite this support, in April of 1829, John H. Eaton, the secretary of war (1829 - 1831) informed Ross that President Jackson would support the right of Georgia to extend her laws over the Cherokee Nation and in May 1830, Congress endorsed Jackson's policy of removal by passing the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the president to set aside lands west of the Mississippi to exchange for the lands of the Indian nations in the east.
When Ross and the Cherokee delegation failed in their efforts to protect Cherokee lands through negotiation with the executive branch and through petitions with Congress, Ross took the radical step of defending Cherokee rights through the U.S. courts.
[edit] The case
In June 1830, a delegation of Cherokee led by Chief John Ross selected William Wirt, attorney general in the Monroe and Adams administrations, on the urging of Senators Daniel Webster and Theodore Frelinghuysen to defend Cherokee rights before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Cherokee nation asked for an injunction, claiming that Georgia's state legislation had created laws which, "go directly to annihilate the Cherokees as a political society". Wirt argued that "the Cherokee Nation [was] a foreign nation in the sense of our constitution and law" and was not subject to Georgia's jurisdiction. Wirt asked the Supreme Court to null and void all Georgia laws extended over Cherokee lands on the grounds that they violated the U.S. Constitution, United States-Cherokee treaties, and United States intercourse laws.
The injunction was denied, on the grounds that the Cherokee people, not being a state, and claiming to be independent of the United States, were a "denominated domestic dependent nation", over which the Supreme Court had no original jurisdiction. Although the Court determined that it did not have original jurisdiction in this case, the Court held open the possibility that it yet might rule in favor of the Cherokee on an appeal from a lower court.
The 1832 Supreme Court decision Worcester v. Georgia later ruled that Georgia could not impose its laws upon Cherokee tribal lands.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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