Notice of the Supreme Court’s Opinion in Worcester v. Georgia
1/9/1832
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These documents come from the case file for Worcester v. Georgia. The Supreme Court sent them to the Gwinnett County Superior Court in Georgia to notify them that they'd overruled their decision. The Supreme Court wrote that Samuel Worcester and Elizur Butler’s defense of their indictment, arrest, and imprisonment “ought to have been allowed and admitted.” The first document pertains to Worcester and the second to Butler.
Worcester and Butler had plead not guilty to the charge of failing to obtain a permit or license to reside on Cherokee land. In 1830, Georgia had passed a law requiring non-Cherokee to obtain a permit from the state of Georgia to do so. A group of missionaries, including Worcester and Butler, were indicted by a grand jury after they went to live on Cherokee land in Georgia, with permission from the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Government. The Superior Court of Gwinnet in Georgia found them guilty, and sentenced them to four years of hard labor.
The men appealed. After they were unsuccessful in the highest state court, they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on a writ of error (which demands the lower court provide the full record to a higher court for review of errors) in Worcester v. Georgia. The Federal question raised (necessary to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court) was whether the state of Georgia had jurisdiction, since the men were present in the territory under authority of the U.S. President doing missionary work, and with the permission of the Cherokee Nation. In other words, did the state of Georgia have the authority to hear the case or to pass laws concerning sovereign Indian nations?
The question had been asked of the Supreme Court before. In 1828, Georgia had passed a series of acts taking away rights of Cherokees residing within the state, including Cherokee removal from land that the state wanted. The Cherokee asserted that Georgia did not have the jurisdiction or authority to do these things, since the Cherokee Nation was sovereign and protected under a treaty with the United States. They sought an injunction — or order to stop what the State of Georgia was doing — from the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831. The Supreme Court said they lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and it was dismissed, leaving the Cherokee at the mercy of the laws of the state of Georgia.
In Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, however, the Supreme Court ruled that states, like Georgia, could not diminish rights of tribes because the Cherokee Nation constituted a nation holding distinct sovereign powers as granted by Congress and the United States. This established the principle of "tribal sovereignty." The Court also issued a mandate to release Worcester and Butler.
Georgia ignored the ruling, however, and did not release the men. President Andrew Jackson did not intervene to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. (Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin pardoned Butler and Worcester in 1833.)
So the judicial branch handed down a ruling that should have freed Butler and Worcester and established more sovereignty for the tribes; but it didn't have that effect because the executive branch did not enforce it.
This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2016 summer workshop in Washington, D.C.
Worcester and Butler had plead not guilty to the charge of failing to obtain a permit or license to reside on Cherokee land. In 1830, Georgia had passed a law requiring non-Cherokee to obtain a permit from the state of Georgia to do so. A group of missionaries, including Worcester and Butler, were indicted by a grand jury after they went to live on Cherokee land in Georgia, with permission from the Cherokee Nation and the U.S. Government. The Superior Court of Gwinnet in Georgia found them guilty, and sentenced them to four years of hard labor.
The men appealed. After they were unsuccessful in the highest state court, they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on a writ of error (which demands the lower court provide the full record to a higher court for review of errors) in Worcester v. Georgia. The Federal question raised (necessary to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court) was whether the state of Georgia had jurisdiction, since the men were present in the territory under authority of the U.S. President doing missionary work, and with the permission of the Cherokee Nation. In other words, did the state of Georgia have the authority to hear the case or to pass laws concerning sovereign Indian nations?
The question had been asked of the Supreme Court before. In 1828, Georgia had passed a series of acts taking away rights of Cherokees residing within the state, including Cherokee removal from land that the state wanted. The Cherokee asserted that Georgia did not have the jurisdiction or authority to do these things, since the Cherokee Nation was sovereign and protected under a treaty with the United States. They sought an injunction — or order to stop what the State of Georgia was doing — from the U.S. Supreme Court in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia in 1831. The Supreme Court said they lacked jurisdiction to hear the case and it was dismissed, leaving the Cherokee at the mercy of the laws of the state of Georgia.
In Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, however, the Supreme Court ruled that states, like Georgia, could not diminish rights of tribes because the Cherokee Nation constituted a nation holding distinct sovereign powers as granted by Congress and the United States. This established the principle of "tribal sovereignty." The Court also issued a mandate to release Worcester and Butler.
Georgia ignored the ruling, however, and did not release the men. President Andrew Jackson did not intervene to enforce the Supreme Court ruling. (Georgia Governor Wilson Lumpkin pardoned Butler and Worcester in 1833.)
So the judicial branch handed down a ruling that should have freed Butler and Worcester and established more sovereignty for the tribes; but it didn't have that effect because the executive branch did not enforce it.
President Andrew Jackson had called for the relocation of eastern Native American tribes to land west of the Mississippi River, and Congress had passed the Indian Removal Act, in 1830. The Cherokee were forcibly removed from Georgia — a journey west that became known as the “Trail of Tears” because of the thousands of deaths along the way.
This document was digitized by teachers in our Primarily Teaching 2016 summer workshop in Washington, D.C.
Transcript
The United States of America, ss.The President of the United States of America,
To the Honorable Judge [crossed out: s] of the ^Superior Court for the County of Gwinnett in the State of Georgia [crossed out: Circuit Court, of the United States, for the District of] greeting:
Whereas lately in the ^Superior Court for the County of Gwinnett in the State of Georgia [crossed out: Circuit Court of the United States, for the district of] before you, [crossed out: or some of you,] in cause, [crossed out: wherein]
between the State of Georgia Plaintiff and Samuel A Worcester defendant, on an indictment for residing in the Cherokee Nation without a license, the judgment of the said Superior Court was in the following words [illegible]; the Deft. [defendant] in this case shall be kept in close custody, by the Sheriff for this county, until he can be transported to the penitentiary of the [^crossed out text] State and the keeper thereof is hereby directed to receive him, into his custody and keep him at hard labour in said penitentiary for and during the term of four years—
as by the inspection of the transcript of the record of the said ^Superior [crossed out: Circuit] Court which was brought into the Supreme Court of the United States by virtue of a writ of error agreeably to the act of Congress in such case made and provided, fully and at large appears. And whereas in the present term of ^January [crossed out: February], in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two the said cause came to be heard before the said Supreme Court, on the said transcript of the record, and was argued by counsel; on consideration whereof,
it is the opinion of this court that the act of the Legislature of the State of Georgia, upon which the indictment in this case is founded is contrary to the Constitution, Treaties and Laws of the United States; and that the special plea in bar pleaded by the said Samuel A. Worcester in manner aforesaid and relying upon the Constitution, Treaties, and Laws of the United States aforesaid is a good bar and defence to the said indictment by the said Samuel A. Worcester; and as such ought to have been allowed and admitted by the said Superior Court for the County of Gwinnett in the State of
You, therefore, are hereby commanded that such ^further proceedings be had in said cause, ^in conformity with the judgment of the Sup Ct U.S. as according to the right and justice, and the laws of the United States ought to be had, the said writ of error notwithstanding: WITNESS the honorable John Marshall, Chief Justice of said Supreme Court, the ^2nd [crossed out: first] Monday in ^January [crossed out: February], in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two.
Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States
The President of the United States of America, ss:
To the Honorable Judge [crossed out: s] of the ^Superior Court for the County Gwinnett in the State of Georgia [crossed out: Circuit Court, of the United States, for the District of] greeting:
Whereas lately in the ^Superior Court for the County of Gwinnett in the State of Georgia [crossed out: Circuit Court of the United States, for the district of] before you, [crossed out: or some of you,] in cause, [crossed out: wherein]
between the State of Georgia plaintiff and Elizur Butler, defendant on an indictment for residing in the Cherokee Nation without a license - the judgment of the said Superior Court was in the following words [illegible]; the defendant in this case shall be kept in close custody, by the Sheriff of this county, until he can be transported to the penitentiary of the State and the keeper thereof is hereby directed to receive him into his custody and keep him at hard labour in said penitentiary for and during the term of four years—
as by the inspection of the transcript of the record of the said ^Superior [crossed out: Circuit] Court which was brought into the Supreme Court of the United States by virtue of a writ of error agreeably to the act of Congress in such case made and provided, fully and at large appears. And whereas in the present term of ^January [crossed out: February], in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two the said cause came to be heard before the said Supreme Court, on the said transcript of the record, and was argued by counsel; on consideration whereof, it is
the opinion of this court, that the act of the Legislature of the State of Georgia, upon which the indictment in this case is founded is contrary to the Constitution, Treaties and laws of the United States; and that the special plea in bar pleaded by the said Elizur Butler in manner aforesaid and relying upon the Constitution, Treaties, and Laws of the United States aforesaid is a good bar and defence to the said indictment by the said Elizur Butler; and as such ought to have been allowed and admitted [crossed out: by the]
You, therefore, are hereby commanded that such further proceedings be had in such cause as according to right and justice, and the laws of the United States in conformity with the judgment of Sup Ct U.S. - ought to be had, the said writ of error notwithstanding: WITNESS the honorable John Marshall, Chief Justice of said Supreme Court, the ^2nd [crossed out: first] Monday in ^January [crossed out: February], in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two.
Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States
This primary source comes from the Records of the Supreme Court.
National Archives Identifier: 38995510
Full Citation: Notice of the Supreme Court’s Opinion in Worcester v. Georgia; 1/9/1832; Appellate Case File Number 1705; Case File for Worcester v. Georgia; Appellate Jurisdiction Case Files, 1792-2010; Records of the Supreme Court, Record Group 267; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/worcester-v-georgia, September 9, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.
