Fletcher v. Peck

On March 16, 1810, Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court, delivered the Court’s decision in Fletcher v. Peck. Fletcher v. Peck was a landmark case for at least three reasons. One was that it strengthened the commerce clause of article I, section 10, of the U.S. Constitution (“No State shall . . . pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts”). The second was that it was the first time the Supreme Court held a state law unconstitutional. The third was that it suggested that Indian tribes did not hold valid title to their lands; rather, title was vested in the states.

The facts of Fletcher v. Peck are these: After the American Revolution, Georgia claimed lands to its west, the so-called Yazoo lands (named after an Indian tribe) that would eventually become the states of Alabama and Mississippi. But in 1795 all but one member of the Georgia legislature was bribed to sell off about thirty million acres of Yazoo lands to developers for $500,000. The public was outraged.

Most of the legislators lost their later bid for reelection, and in 1796 the new legislature passed a bill nullifying the land sale. But people who had purchased the land from the state were reselling parts of it, usually at great profit. One of these subsequent buyers was Robert Fletcher, who had bought land from John Peck, who in turn had bought it from Georgia. Peck, in defiance of the 1796 law, placed a covenant on the deed to the land. This covenant stated that title to the land was not impaired by any later acts of Georgia. Fletcher, facing the loss of his investment, then sued Peck, claiming that Peck had sold him property to which he did not have clear title, despite the covenant.

The fundamental question the Supreme Court faced in Fletcher v. Peck was whether, under the U.S. Constitution, a state can pass a law that negates property rights created under earlier legislation. The answer was no, for such a law violates the commerce clause. As a result of this ruling, Fletcher had clear title to the land he bought from Peck.