Cohens v. Virginia

19 U.S. 264

Case Year: 1821

Case Ruling: 6-1

Opinion Justice: Marshall

FACTS

Brothers P. J. and M. J. Cohen were tried and convicted in Virginia for selling tickets for the District of Columbia lottery, which was authorized by an act of Congress but not by Virginia law. When the brothers alleged that the federal law superseded the Virginia statute, the Supreme Court was again compelled to review a Virginia court’s interpretation of a congressional act.

As in Marbury v. Madison (1803), the Court was faced with a difficult political situation. Virginia had refused to comply with the Court’s earlier decision in Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee (1816). The state’s attorneys, including Philip P. Barbour, who later would serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, continued to argue that the Court could not review state court decisions because the states were sovereign entities.