Chisholm v. Georgia

Chisholm v. Georgia
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 5, 1793 Decided February 18, 1793
Full case name	Alexander Chisholm, Executors v. Georgia
Citations	2 U.S. 419 (more) 2 Dall. 419; 1 L. Ed. 440; 1793 U.S. LEXIS 249
Case history
Prior	Original action filed, U.S. Supreme Court, August, 1792 [note 1]
Holding
Article III, Section 2 grants federal courts jurisdiction in cases between a state and a citizen of another state wherein the state is the defendant.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Jay Associate Justices James Wilson · William Cushing John Blair Jr. · James Iredell
Case opinions
Seriatim	Cushing
Seriatim	Blair
Seriatim	Wilson
Seriatim	Jay
Dissent	Iredell
Laws applied
U.S. Const. art. III; Judiciary Act of 1789
Superseded by
U.S. Const. amend. XI

Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419 (1793), is considered the first United States Supreme Court case of significance and impact.^[2] Since the case was argued prior to the formal pronouncement of judicial review by Marbury v. Madison (1803), there was little available legal precedent (particularly in U.S. law).^[3] The Court in a 4–1 decision ruled in favor of Alexander Chisholm, executor of an estate of a citizen of South Carolina, holding that Article III, Section 2 grants federal courts jurisdiction in cases between a state and a citizen of another state wherein the state is the defendant.

The case was superseded in 1795 by the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution which was considered binding by the Court in Hollingsworth v. Virginia (1798). The Supreme Court formally established sovereign immunity in federal courts in Hans v. Louisiana (1890) and state courts in Alden v. Maine (1999) using the Eleventh Amendment, effectively overturning their decision.

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