While some cases originate in the Supreme Court, most cases reach the Court on appeal. That means the Supreme Court spends most of its time reviewing the decisions of lower courts. Since the entire federal court structure wasn't up and running until 1790, the Supreme Court heard very few cases during its first few years of operation. Despite its slow start, the Supreme Court rendered two very important decisions in the late 1700s that had long-lasting effects.
Click each tab below to learn about some of the decisions the Supreme Court made before 1801.
Chisholm v. Georgia
The Eleventh Amendment
Ware v. Hylton
The first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was John Jay. During his tenure as Chief, the Supreme Court heard the case Chisholm v. Georgia (1793). Alexander Chisholm represented a resident of South Carolina who had sold supplies to the state of Georgia during the American Revolution. After the war, Georgia refused to pay for the supplies because the seller was a Loyalist. Chisholm sued Georgia for payment. Georgia refused to participate in the case, so the Supreme Court made a ruling. They found in favor of Chisholm and ordered Georgia to pay for the supplies.
The Court's decision in Chisholm v. Georgia angered all of the states. None of them liked the idea of being sued by the citizen of another state. But the Constitution gave the Supreme Court jurisdiction over these kinds of cases. Worried that they would constantly be dragged into court, the states pushed for changing the Constitution. Their efforts succeeded and in 1795 the Eleventh Amendment was added to the Constitution. According to this amendment, states can no longer be sued by the citizens of other states.
Oliver Ellsworth was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1796. Shortly after his appointment, the Court heard the case Ware v. Hylton (1796). This case involved money that had been borrowed by Americans from British lenders before the American Revolution. After the Revolution, Virginia had passed a law confiscating such debts. In other words, Virginia borrowers now owed the money to Virginia, not to the original lender. Hylton was a Virginian who had borrowed money from a British lender being represented by Ware. In the Ware v. Hylton case, Ware was suing Hylton for repayment of the debt.
The outcome of Ware v. Hylton revolved around the Treaty of Paris, the treaty between Great Britain and the United States that ended the American Revolution in 1783. Under the terms of the treaty, all debts between American subjects and their British lenders had to be repaid. The lawyers for Virginia argued that the states were sovereign entities and, therefore, did not have to abide by the treaty. The Supreme Court disagreed and ruled that the treaties of the United States take precedence over state laws. The Virginia law was declared unconstitutional.
Question
Why was the Eleventh Amendment added to the Constitution?
