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Fletcher v. Peck

 

 
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Fletcher v. Peck
 
 
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Fletcher v. Peck, , was a landmark United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 decision. It was the first case in which the Supreme Court ruled a state law unconstitutional.

In the course of the westward push for the control of Indian lands, the state of Georgia took from the Indians a thirty-five million acre region in the Yazoo River area known as the Yazoo Lands. This land later became the states of Alabama
Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west....
 and Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
. In 1795 the Georgia legislature divided the area into four tracts.






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Fletcher v. Peck, , was a landmark United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 decision. It was the first case in which the Supreme Court ruled a state law unconstitutional.

In the course of the westward push for the control of Indian lands, the state of Georgia took from the Indians a thirty-five million acre region in the Yazoo River area known as the Yazoo Lands. This land later became the states of Alabama
Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west....
 and Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
. In 1795 the Georgia legislature divided the area into four tracts. The state then sold the tracts to four separate land development companies for a modest total price of $500,000, i.e. about 1.4 cents per acre, a good deal even at 1790s prices. The Georgia legislature overwhelmingly approved this land grant, known as the Yazoo Land Act of 1795.

The case grew out of the 1795 Georgia state legislature
Georgia General Assembly

The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia . It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
's sale of land in the Yazoo River country
Yazoo lands

The Yazoo lands were the sparsely-populated central and western areas of the United States U.S. state of Georgia , when its western border stretched back to the Mississippi River....
 (in what is now Mississippi) under the Yazoo Land Act of 1795 to private speculators in return for bribes. Voters rejected most of the incumbents in the next election
Election

An election is a decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office. This is the usual mechanism by which modern Representative democracy fills offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional government and local government....
, and the next legislature, reacting to the public outcry, repealed the law and voided transactions made under it.

John Peck had purchased land that had previously been sold under the 1795 act. Peck sold this land to Robert Fletcher and in 1803, Fletcher brought suit against Peck, claiming that he did not have clear title to the land when he sold it. The case reached the Supreme Court, which in a unanimous decision ruled that the state legislature's repeal of the law was unconstitutional. The opinion, written by John Marshall
John Marshall

John Marshall was an American statesman and jurist who shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power. Marshall was Chief Justice of the United States, serving from February 4, 1801, until his death in 1835....
, argued that the sale was a binding contract
Contract

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act which is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement....
, which according to Article I, Section 10, Clause I (the Contract Clause
Contract Clause

The Contract Clause appears in the United States Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 1. It states:The framers of the Constitution added this clause due to fear that states would continue a practice that had been widespread under the Articles of Confederation—that of granting "private relief." Legislatures would pass bil...
) of the Constitution
United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
 cannot be invalidated, even if illegally secured. Today the ruling further protects property rights against popular pressures, and is the earliest case of the Court asserting its right to invalidate state laws conflicting with the Constitution.

See also

  • List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 10
    List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 10

    This is a list of all the Supreme Court of the United States cases from volume 10:External links...
  • Yazoo land scandal
    Yazoo land scandal

    The Yazoo Land Scandal, Yazoo Fraud or Yazoo Land Fraud was a massive fraud perpetrated by several Georgia governors and the state legislature from 1795 to 1803 by selling large tracts of land to insiders at absurdly low prices....
  • Contract Clause
    Contract Clause

    The Contract Clause appears in the United States Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 1. It states:The framers of the Constitution added this clause due to fear that states would continue a practice that had been widespread under the Articles of Confederation—that of granting "private relief." Legislatures would pass bil...


Further reading

  • John Marshall: Definer Of A Nation by Jean Edward Smith
    Jean Edward Smith

    Jean Edward Smith is professor at Marshall University and biographer. Currently he is the John Marshall Professor of Political Science at Marshall University and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto after having served as professor of political economy there for thirty-five years....
    , 1996, Henry Holt & Company.
  • Yazoo: Law and Politics in the New Republic: The Case of Fletcher v. Peck by C. Peter Magrath, 1966 ISBN 0-608-18419-5


External links