Worcester v. Georgia facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Worcester v. Georgia |
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| Argued February 20, 1832 Decided March 3, 1832 |
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| Full case name | Samuel S. Worcester v. State of Georgia |
| Citations | 31 U.S. 515 (more)
6 Pet. 515; 8 L. Ed. 483
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| 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 | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Marshall, joined by Johnson, Duvall, Story, Thompson |
| Concurrence | McLean |
| Dissent | Baldwin |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. art. I | |
Worcester v. Georgia was a very important case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1832. The Court canceled the punishment of Samuel Worcester. He had been found guilty under a Georgia state law. This law said that people who were not Native American could not be on Native American lands without a special permission from the state. The Supreme Court said this Georgia law was against the Constitution.
This decision is well-known for explaining the relationship between Native American tribes, the states, and the U.S. federal government. It helped create the idea of tribal sovereignty in the United States. This means Native American tribes have the right to govern themselves.
What Happened Next?
On December 29, 1835, some members of the Cherokee Nation signed a very debated agreement called the Treaty of New Echota. Most Cherokees immediately protested this treaty. Samuel Worcester moved to the Cherokee Nation's western Indian Territory in 1836. This was after the forced movement of the Cherokee people had started.
Worcester continued his work there. He kept translating the Bible into the Cherokee language. He also set up the first printing press in that part of the United States. He worked with the Cherokee people to publish their newspaper.
The Worcester case did not immediately help Native American rights. This was because President Andrew Jackson continued with the Cherokee removal. The forced removal of the Cherokee Nation began just three years after Samuel Worcester and Elizur Butler were released from prison in Georgia. This difficult journey, known as the Trail of Tears, started in 1838.
How This Case Still Matters
The Worcester case has been mentioned in many later court decisions. These decisions often talk about tribal sovereignty in the United States. For example, in 2022, the Supreme Court made a decision in the case of Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta. This case followed an earlier decision, McGirt v. Oklahoma. In McGirt, the Court said that tribal lands in eastern Oklahoma had never stopped being tribal lands. This meant that crimes committed by Native Americans on these lands were under tribal and federal law, not state law.
The Castro-Huerta case helped clarify that crimes committed by people who are not Native American on tribal lands could be handled by both federal and state governments at the same time. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority in Castro-Huerta. He said that the idea of "Indian country" being separate from the state, as understood in the Worcester era, changed later in the 1800s. He based this on other cases like United States v. McBratney and Draper v. United States.
In Popular Culture
The play Sovereignty by Mary Kathryn Nagle tells the story of the historical events around this important court case.
