- Collection:
- New Georgia Encyclopedia
- Title:
- Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)
- Creator:
- Coenen, Dan T., 1952-
- Date of Original:
- 2004-10-04
- Subject:
- Judgments--United States
Georgia--Privileges and immunities
States' rights (American politics) - Location:
- United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
- Medium:
- articles
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- text/html
- Description:
- Encyclopedia article about the case of Chisholm v. Georgia (1793). Chisholm v. Georgia is the most famous and the most important of the U.S. Supreme Court's eighteenth-century decisions. The Court's ruling arose out of the sale of supplies during the Revolutionary War (1775-83) made on credit to the state of Georgia by a South Carolina merchant, Captain Robert Farquhar. Georgia later refused to pay for the goods, because Farquhar was a British loyalist. After Farquhar died, however, the executor of his estate, Alexander Chisholm, who also hailed from South Carolina, brought an action on the still-uncollected account (as permitted by the then-operative federal jurisdictional statute) in the Supreme Court of the United States. Upon receiving notice of the action, Georgia refused to appear in court. It asserted that, as a sovereign state, it possessed immunity from the suit, absent its consent, even though Article III of the U.S. Constitution specifies that federal courts have jurisdiction to decide cases "between a State and citizens of another State." Citing this text, the Supreme Court rejected Georgia's sovereign-immunity argument and ordered Georgia to pay Chisholm the money damages he sought.
- Metadata URL:
- https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/chisholm-v-georgia-1793/
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- If you wish to use content from the NGE site for commercial use, publication, or any purpose other than fair use as defined by law, you must request and receive written permission from the NGE. Such requests may be directed to: Permissions/NGE, University of Georgia Press, 330 Research Drive, Athens, GA 30602.
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: "Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)," New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved [date]: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.
- Original Collection:
- Forms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
- Holding Institution:
- New Georgia Encyclopedia (Project)
- Rights:
-
