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The People Or The State?: Chisholm V. Georgia And Popular Sovereignty, Randy E. Barnett
The People Or The State?: Chisholm V. Georgia And Popular Sovereignty, Randy E. Barnett
Georgetown Law Faculty Lectures and Appearances
Chisholm v. Georgia was the first great constitutional case decided by the Supreme Court. In Chisholm, the Court addressed the fundamental question: Who is Sovereign? The People or the State? It adopted an individual concept of popular sovereignty rather than the modern view that limits popular sovereignty to collective or democratic self-government. It denied that the State of Georgia was a sovereign entitled, like the King of England, to assert immunity from a lawsuit brought by a private citizen. Despite all this, Chisholm is not among the canon of cases that all law students are taught. Why not? In this …