Law School Case Briefs
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Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia
Supreme Court of the United States (1831) | 30 U.S. 1; 8 L. Ed. 25; 5 Pet. 1; 1831 U.S. LEXIS 337
TL;DR: The Cherokee Nation sought to stop Georgia from enforcing state laws on its territory. The Supreme Court dismissed the case, finding it lacked jurisdiction because the Cherokee Nation was not a "foreign state" under the Constitution.
Legal Significance: The case established that Native American tribes are "domestic dependent nations," not "foreign states" under Article III of the Constitution, thereby denying them direct access to the Supreme Court to sue a state and shaping the political question doctrine.