State Actions Subject to Judicial Review
Main body
In 1795, the Georgia legislature sold - at very low rates - extensive territory that now comprises much of Alabama and Mississippi. When a later Georgia legislature rescinded the "Yazoo land scandal" sales, buyers and subsequent purchasers challenged that action.
In the 1810 case of Fletcher v. Peck, the U.S. Supreme Court sustained the challenge, thereby extending the doctrine of judicial review to state actions. Interestingly, Massachusetts investor John Peck was represented in his appeal by then-Senator John Quincy Adams, the first future president to argue a case before the nation's highest tribunal.
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