Worcester v. Georgia

Samuel Worcester, tried, convicted, and sentenced by the state of Georgia for illegally living in the lands of the Cherokee Nation encompassed by the state of Georgia, was found by the Supreme Court to have legally lived in Cherokee Nation, by virtue of the facts that the Cherokee Nation is a nation within itself, and that the state of Georgia had no authority to mandate laws within the territory confined by the Cherokee Nation. The acts established by the state of Georgia that affected the lands of the Cherokee Nation were deemed unconstitutional and void.