| Johnson v. McIntosh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued February 15–19, 1823 Decided February 28, 1823 | |
| Full case name | Johnson and Graham’s Lessee v. William McIntosh |
| Citations | 21 U.S. 543 (more) 8 Wheat. 543; 5 L. Ed. 681; 1823 U.S. LEXIS 293 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Appeal from the District Court of Illinois |
| Subsequent | None |
| Holding | |
| Johnson's lessees cannot eject McIntosh because their title, derived from private purchases from Indians, could not be valid. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinion | |
| Majority | Marshall, joined by unanimous |
| Laws applied | |
| Custom[1] | |
Johnson v. McIntosh,[a] 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 (1823), also written M‘Intosh, is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that held that private citizens could not purchase lands from Native Americans. As the facts were recited by Chief Justice John Marshall, the successor in interest to a private purchase from the Piankeshaw attempted to maintain an action of ejectment against the holder of a federal land patent.
The case is one of the most influential and well-known decisions of the Marshall Court, a fixture of the first-year curriculum in nearly all U.S. law schools. Marshall's opinion lays down the foundations of the doctrine of aboriginal title in the United States, and the related doctrine of discovery. However, the vast majority of the opinion is dicta; as valid title is a basic element of the cause of action for ejectment, the holding does not extend to the validity of McIntosh's title, much less the property rights of the Piankeshaw. Thus, all that the opinion holds with respect to aboriginal title is that it is inalienable, a principle that remains well-established law in nearly all common law jurisdictions.
Citation to Johnson has been a staple of federal and state cases related to Native American land title for 200 years. Like Johnson, nearly all of those cases involve land disputes between two non-Native parties, typically one with a chain of title tracing to a federal or state government and the other with a chain of title predating U.S. sovereignty. A similar trend can be seen in the early case law of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The first land dispute involving an indigenous party to reach to the Supreme Court was Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831).
The ruling essentially enforces the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that was issued by King George III.
- ^ Kades, 148 U. Pa. L. Rev. at 1098 ("[T]he basis for the holding in M'Intosh: custom. Phrases like 'understood by all,' 'exercised uniformly,' and 'universal recognition' appeal to long-established practice, not to any specific constitutional, statutory, or common law rule.").
- ^ Michael G. Collins, M‘Culloch and the Turned Comma, 12 Greenbag 2d 265 (2009).
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