Cohens vs Virginia (1821)

          The United States Congress authorized the sellng of lottery tickets in the District of Columbia. The Cohen brothers began to sell lottery tickets in Virginia which violated the state law. The state authorities fined them $100. State courts beleived that Virginia's law prohibiting lotteries could be enforced although congress authorized the selling of lottery tickets. The Cohens appealed to the Supreme Court that their conduct was protected by the Act that Congress had authorize. In the end, the Cohens brothers' charges were upheld because Congress only allowed for the tickets to be sold in the District of Columbia. This case mostly signified that the Supreme Court had jurisdiction in all cases brought to the Supreme Court.

          The main issue in the case was the question of whether or not the Supreme Court had jurisdiction to hear an appeal in a criminal case. Virginia argued that the Constitution did not give the Supreme Court jurisdiction over criminal judgments by the state courts. Virginia also argued that its decision was final and unreviewable by the Supreme Court. They belived that even though the law involved an act of Congress, Virginia had an unreviewable right apply or not apply a federal law as it liked. The Supreme Court used Article III, Section 2 (Supremacy Clause) of the Constitution to prove that they had jurisdiction in this criminal case. This article states, "all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority." This meant that with the Constitution, the Constitution grants Supreme Court jurisdiction for all cases.
          This case strengthened the Supreme Court's jurisdiction as it was determined that the Supreme Court had jurisdiction in every case. This could have been determined in a later on case brought to the Supreme Court because this idea of the Supreme Court's jurisdiction had been established in the Fletcher vs Peck case in 1810. The Supreme Court could have ruled that the Cohens brothers were clear of charges but the act passed by Congress was directly applied to and only the District of Columbia so Virginia's law was still intact for no lottery tickets being sold.