Supreme Court Rules Georgia Cannot Seize Cherokee Lands; Jackson Refuses to Enforce Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-1 in Worcester v. Georgia that states lack authority to impose regulations on Native American lands, with Chief Justice John Marshall writing that Indian nations are “distinct, independent political communities retaining their original natural rights” and that Georgia’s 1830 law requiring non-Native Americans to obtain permits to enter Cherokee territory is “repugnant to the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States.” The decision vindicates missionary Samuel Worcester and other Christian missionaries imprisoned by Georgia for residing in Cherokee Nation without state permits, declaring that the Cherokee Nation possesses legitimate title to its national territory and the right to live free from state trespass. However, President Andrew Jackson refuses to enforce the ruling, Georgia ignores the Court’s mandate and keeps the missionaries imprisoned until 1833, and the executive branch proceeds with Cherokee removal plans—demonstrating how constitutional governance collapses when the president prioritizes political expediency over rule of law.

Marshall’s majority opinion harshly rebukes Georgia’s land grab, affirming that although the Cherokee Nation had surrendered certain sovereign powers through treaties with the United States, it remained “a separate, sovereign nation” whose rights must be respected. The decision directly contradicts Georgia’s claim that it can extend state law over Cherokee lands and force indigenous removal to benefit white settlers and gold prospectors. Marshall’s legal reasoning establishes that the federal government, not individual states, serves as the proper interlocutor with sovereign Indian nations—a principle that becomes foundational for indigenous rights law but has no immediate practical effect due to executive branch nullification. The case arose after Georgia arrested Worcester and other missionaries in September 1831 for violating the state’s licensing requirement, sentencing them to four years hard labor in a transparent attempt to remove white allies who might document or resist Cherokee dispossession.

President Jackson’s response to Worcester exemplifies presidential defiance of judicial authority. While the famous quote “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!” is likely apocryphal, Jackson’s actions speak clearly. In an April 1832 letter to John Coffee, Jackson writes that “the decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate.” Rather than using federal authority to uphold the Court’s ruling, Jackson instead calls on the Cherokee to relocate, effectively siding with Georgia’s land seizure. Georgia keeps Worcester and the other missionaries in prison despite the Supreme Court ruling until granting them a pardon in 1833. Jackson’s political enemies attempt to use his refusal to enforce Worcester in the 1832 presidential campaign, but Jackson wins reelection, interpreting his victory as a mandate for Cherokee removal.

The Worcester decision’s nullification establishes a catastrophic precedent for executive disregard of judicial rulings when those rulings conflict with political interests. Because the Court’s decision imposed no specific enforcement obligations and did not direct federal marshals to act, Jackson faces no immediate constitutional crisis—but his refusal to defend judicial authority against state defiance signals that indigenous rights, no matter how clearly established in law, will not be protected when political and economic interests favor dispossession. Cherokee removal begins just three years after the missionaries’ 1833 release, with forced migration via the Trail of Tears commencing in 1838. The episode demonstrates kakistocracy through the alignment of executive power, state governments, and economic interests to override constitutional principles, using presidential authority to nullify Supreme Court decisions that protect vulnerable populations from ethnic cleansing for the benefit of land speculators, gold prospectors, and slaveholders seeking new cotton lands.