Sturges v. Crowninshield

SCOTUSCase
Litigants=Sturges v. Crowninshield
ArgueDate=February 8
ArgueYear=1819
DecideDate=February 17
DecideYear=1819
FullName=Sturges v. Crowninshield
USVol=17
USPage=122
Citation=17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 122; 4 L. Ed. 529; 1819 U.S. LEXIS 310
Prior=
Subsequent=
Holding=
SCOTUS=1812-1823
Majority=Marshall
JoinMajority="unanimous"
LawsApplied=

"Sturges v. Crowninshield", 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 122 (1819), dealt with the constitutionality of New York creating bankruptcy laws and retroactively applying those laws.

First issue

This case decided whether state bankruptcy laws violated the provision in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution giving Congress the power "to establish...uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies through-out the United states". This was a power which Congress had not previously exercised. Were the states restricted from passing bankruptcy laws of their own? cite book
last =Bates
first =Ernest Sutherland
authorlink =
coauthors =
year =1982
title =Story of the Supreme Court
publisher =Wm. S. Hein Publishing
location =
id =ISBN 0-8377-0322-0 p. 118]

Justice Marshall stated in the opinion:

Justice Marshall's answer to this question was not very clear.

In Ogden v. Saunders, eight years later, Justice Johnson explained why the ruling was so vague:

In other words, the Republican judges wanted to retain all state bankruptcy laws and the Fedralists wanted to abolish them all. Minority Republicans agreed on the best bargain they could by agreeing to sacrifice the New York law if the rest were not deemed unconstitutional. Bates, p. 119]

econd issue

In addition, the Supreme Court addressed the issue of ex post facto law or retroactive law in the particular New York bankruptcy law in question. This law covered debts contracted before the law was passed. The retroactive portion of the law was ruled to be unconstitutional by a unanimous court, because it impaired the debtors obligation to a contract.

ee also

* List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 17

External links

*caselaw source
case="Sturges v. Crowninshield", 17 U.S. 122 (1819)
enfacto=http://www.enfacto.com/case/U.S./17/122/
justia=http://supreme.justia.com/us/17/122/case.html

Notes