Worcester v. Georgia

Worcester v. Georgia
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 20, 1832 Decided March 23, 1832
Full case name	Samuel A. Worcester v. Georgia
Citations	31 U.S. 515 (more) 8 L. Ed. 483
Prior history	Plaintiff convicted in Gwinnett County, Georgia by the Georgia Superior Court (September 15, 1831)
Subsequent history	None
Holding
Worcester's conviction is void, because states have no criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Marshall Associate Justices William Johnson · Gabriel Duvall Joseph Story · Smith Thompson John McLean · Henry Baldwin
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Johnson, Duvall, Story, Thompson
Concurrence	McLean
Dissent	Baldwin
Laws applied
U.S. Const. art. I

Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515 (1832), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional.

The opinion is most famous for its dicta, which laid out the relationship between tribes and the state and federal governments, stating that the federal government was the sole authority to deal with Indian nations. It is considered to have built the foundations of the doctrine of tribal sovereignty in the United States.

Ruling

Chief Justice John Marshall laid out in this opinion that the relationship between the Indian Nations and the United States is that of nations. He argued that the United States, in the character of the federal government, inherited the rights of Great Britain as they were held by that nation. Those rights, he stated, include the sole right to deal with the Indian nations in North America, to the exclusion of any other European power. This did not include the rights of possession to their land or political dominion over their laws. He acknowledged that the exercise of conquest and purchase can give political dominion, but those are in the hands of the federal government, and individual states had no authority in American Indian affairs. Georgia's statute was therefore invalid.

Marshall's language in Worcester may have been motivated by his regret that his earlier opinions in Fletcher and Johnson had been used as a justification for Georgia's actions. Joseph Story considered it similarly, writing in a letter to his wife dated March 4, 1832: "Thanks be to God, the Court can wash their hands clean of the iniquity of oppressing the Indians and disregarding their rights."

Samuel Worcester

Effects

In a popular quotation that is believed to be apocryphal, President Andrew Jackson reportedly responded: "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" This derives from Jackson's comments on the case in a letter to John Coffee, "...the decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate".

The Court did not ask federal marshals to carry out the decision, as had become standard. Worcester thus imposed no obligations on Jackson; there was nothing for him to enforce. This may be seen as a prudential decision, for avoiding the possibility of political conflict between the Court and the Executive, while still delivering what appeared to be a pro-Indian decision.

However, the ruling did order that Worcester be freed, and Georgia complied after several months. In 1833, the newly elected governor, Wilson Lumpkin, offered to pardon Worcester and Butler if they ceased their activities among the Cherokee. The two complied and were freed (under the authority of a January 14, 1833 general proclamation by Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin, not a formal pardon). They never returned to Cherokee land.

Later events

Because Jackson proceeded with Cherokee removal, Worcester did not aid indigenous rights at the time. Forced migration of Indians via the Trail of Tears was one result.

Worcester has been cited in several later opinions on the subject of tribal sovereignty in the United States.

References

• Stuart Banner, How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
• Jill Norgren, The Cherokee Cases: Two Landmark Federal Decisions in the Fight for Sovereignty (2004).
• Lindsay G. Robertson, Conquest by Law: How the Discovery of America Dispossessed Indigenous Peoples of Their Lands (2005).
• Charles Warren. The Supreme Court in United States History, (2d. ed., 1926). 2 vols.

External links

• Text of Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832) is available from:  Findlaw  Justia 
• Worcester v. Georgia in the New Georgia Encyclopedia