Cohens v. Virginia

Appellants
Philip and Mendes Cohen
Appellee
State of Virginia
Appellants' Claim
A $100 fine under Virginia state law for selling tickets in Virginia for a national lottery authorized by Congress in the District of Columbia flouted congressional authority.
Chief Lawyers for Appellants
David B. Ogden, William Pickney
Chief Lawyers for Appellees
James Barbor, Daniel Webster
Justices for the Court
Gabriel Duvall, William Johnson, Henry Brockholst Livingston, John Marshall (writing for the Court), Joseph Story, Thomas Todd, Bushrod Washington
Justices Dissenting
None
Place
Washington, D.C.
Date of Decision
3 March 1821
Decision
The justices, on the facts, upheld a fine imposed by a state court, while asserting the Supreme Court's authority, under the Constitution, to review statecourt decisions.
Significance
Cohens v. Virginia crowned a series of decisions asserting the SupremeCourt's authority to, in the words of Marshall, "decide all cases of every description under the laws of the United States." In this 1821 decision, Marshall legally demolished the claims of states' rights which would politically plunge the nation into Civil War in 1861: "The Constitution and laws of a state, insofar as they are repugnant to the Constitution and laws of the United States are absolutely void."
It was a cynical appeal, brought by two highly paid lawyers, on behalf of twospeculators hoping to reap a multi-state harvest from a District of Columbialottery. But it provided Chief Justice Marshall with grounds to assert the supremacy of the Union over the states.
In words that anticipated those of Abraham Lincoln in defending the Union 40years later, Marshall unequivocally asserted the "We, the People" with whichthe Constitution began meant the Union, Congress and the Supreme Court created by that Constitution reigned over the states:

The United States form . . . a single nation . . . In war, we areone people. In all commercial regulations, we are one and the same people. In many other respects, the American people are one; and the government whichis alone capable of controlling and managing their interests in all these respects is the government of the Union.

"It is their government, and in that character they have no other," Marshalldeclared in perhaps his most important decision--and in some of his most ringing words: "America has chosen to be a . . . nation; and for all these purposes, her government is complete . . . it is competent . . . it is supreme."
Albert Beveridge, Marshall's biographer, wrote that Cohens v. Virginiawas one of the most famous cases in American jurisprudence, but, "on the merits, it amounted to nothing." But, as Beveridge added, although the "practical result of the appeal was nothing, it afforded John Marshall the opportunityto tell the Nation its duty."
Philip and Mendes Cohen, owners of a lottery authorized by Congress to operate in the District of Columbia, hoped to gleen the spare cash of people in other states. But officials in Norfolk, Virginia, zealously guarding the coffersof that state's lottery, fined the Cohens $100 for siphoning off the cash ofVirginia citizens.
Marshall agreed with the constitutional claims of the Cohens' lawyers. DavidB. Ogden of New York, argued that Virginia had no authority to impose such fines since a "sovereign state, independent of the Union," does not exist. If federal courts did not review the decisions of state tribunals, federal authority would be surrendered, leaving "the Union a mere league or confederacy," argued William Pinckney, another Cohens' attorney and the nation's highest paid lawyer.
"On the merits," however, Marshall concurred with Virginia's attorneys, agreeing that the state had the power to regulate lottery sales within its borders. The District of Columbia lottery allowed by Congress was "only co-extensivewith the city," Marshall ruled.
States' rights advocates were enraged--and suspicious--claiming the appeal had been "arranged . . . feigned" just to give Marshall an opportunity to assert national over states' interests. Even if the appeal was, "never was such contrivance so justified," Beveridge concluded.
Related Cases

• Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S. 304 (1816).
  
• McCullouch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819).
  
• Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032 (1983).

Lotteries in America
The lottery in America dates to 1612, when the Virginia Company introduced alottery with the authorization of the British sovereign. The practice caughton in the colonies, and lotteries served as a significant means of raising money to fund the American Revolution. Among the supporters of the lottery concept were Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Lotteries continued to be popular throughout the late eighteenth century andmost of the nineteenth. By the mid-nineteenth century, the eastern states were raising some $66 million in annual funds by means of lotteries, and the practice expanded to the West. By the late 1800s, a variety of factors, including corruption in the operation of lotteries, served to virtually extinguish them in all states except Louisiana. In 1890, Congress passed the Anti-LotteryAct.
Since their reintroduction in New Hampshire in 1964, however, lotteries haveproven more popular than ever, and with congressional authorization of new lottery standards in 1974, more states have started lotteries. Lotteries, however, continue to be a controversial means of raising funds: according to detractors, they disproportionately drain the finances of the poor.
Sources
West's Encyclopedia of American Law. St. Paul, MN: West Group, 1998.