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Constitutional Law Keyed to Chemerinsky
Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee
Citation:
14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 304 (1816)
InstructorMatthew Steinberg
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
Lord Fairfax, a British subject and Virginia resident, owned approximately 300,000 acres of land in Virginia’s Northern Neck. Upon his death in December 1781, during the Revolutionary War, he devised his land to his nephew, Denny Martin (who later took the name Denny Fairfax), a British subject who remained in England. Virginia passed laws allowing the state to confiscate lands of British subjects through escheat. In 1789, Virginia granted a patent for a portion of this land to David Hunter, a Virginia citizen. Hunter brought an ejectment action against Fairfax. The case involved complex questions about the effect of the 1783 Treaty of Peace and the 1794 Jay Treaty with Great Britain, which protected British subjects’ property rights. The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that the land had properly escheated to Virginia, rejecting Fairfax’s claim under the treaties. When the Supreme Court reversed this decision, the Virginia court refused to comply, asserting that the Supreme Court had no authority to review state court decisions.
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