WORCESTER V. GEORGIA (1832) DECISION
Speaking through Chief Justice John Marshall, the Supreme Court, with only one justice dissenting, ruled in favor of Worcester and the Cherokees. The Court reasoned that the Cherokee nation was “a distinct community” with “self-government” in which the laws of Georgia had no force. Marshall explains that the government of the United States inherited from Great Britain the powers that that nation formerly held, including the sole power to deal with the Indian nations. He writes: “From the commencement of our government, Congress has passed acts to regulate trade … with the Indians; which treat them as nations, respect their rights, and manifest a firm purpose to afford that protection which treaties stipulate. All these acts … manifestly consider the several Indian nations as distinct political communities, having territorial boundaries, within which their authority is exclusive, and having a right to all the lands within those boundaries, which is not only acknowledged, but guaranteed by the United States … .” Marshall goes on to write that the citizens of Georgia have no right to enter Cherokee land “but with the assent of the Cherokees themselves, or in conformity with treaties, and with the acts of Congress. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation, is, by our Constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States.” Therefore, the Chief Justice concludes, “The acts of Georgia are repugnant to the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States.”
