''Rutgers v. Waddington'' was a case held in the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
Mayor's Court in 1784 that set a
precedent
A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...
for the concept of
judicial review in the United States.
[NovelGuide.com]
RUTGERS v. WADDINGTON (New York Mayor's Court, 1784) The case was controversial, and after the court's ruling the New York Legislature passed a vote of censure on the court.
Background
After the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, the
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
legislature enacted a series of laws that stripped
Tories
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
, opponents of the revolution, of their property and privilege. One such law passed by the legislature in 1783 was the Trespass Act, which gave
Patriots, supporters of the revolution, the legal right to sue anyone who had occupied, damaged, or destroyed homes that they had left behind British lines during the war.
[
] That law served as the foundation for this case.
Arguments
''Rutgers v. Waddington'' was presented on June 29, 1784 before Chief Justice
James Duane
James Duane (February 6, 1733 – February 1, 1797) was an American Founding Father, attorney, jurist, and American Revolutionary leader from New York. He served as a delegate to the First Continental Congress, Second Continental Congress an ...
and four additional aldermen. The plaintiff, Elizabeth Rutgers, owned a large brewery and alehouse that she was forced to abandon during the British occupation of New York City. Under the recently-enacted Trespass Act, Rutgers demanded rent by the sum of £8,000
from
Joshua Waddington, who was running the brewery ever since it had been abandoned.
The defense's case was litigated by
Alexander Hamilton, who posited that the Trespass Act violated the
Treaty of Paris (1783)
The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and overall state of conflict ...
, which had been ratified by the
US Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...
. Hamilton decided that the case would be a good test of ruling the legality of the Trespass Act.
Decision and legacy
Duane handed down a split verdict, which quickly resulted in censure by the New York legislature. The ruling entitled Rutgers to rent only from the time before the British occupation,
[ and both parties agreed to the amount of £800.]judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
. Duane wrote in his ruling that "no state in this union can alter or abridge, in a single point, the federal articles or the treaty."Georgetown University Law Center
The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...
the ''Rutgers'' case concluded, "Judges cannot 'reject' a clearly expressed statute simply because it is 'unreasonable'".[JUDICIAL REVIEW BEFORE MARBURY]
Stanford Law Review, 12/1/2005, p. 486 Duane wrote:
The supremacy of the legislature need not be called into question; if they think fit positively to enact a law, there is no power which can control them. When the main object of such a law is clearly expressed, and the intention manifest, the judges are not at liberty, although it appears to them to be unreasonable, to reject it; for this were to set the judicial above the legislative, which would be subversive of all government.
According to the historian Shannon C. Stimson, the reason for the censure was "not legislative intent, but legislative power and whether any legitimate authority existed which might challenge the majority will."
Several scholars believe that ''Rutgers'' "was a template for the interpretive approach he amiltonadopted in Federalist No. 78
Federalist No. 78 is an essay by Alexander Hamilton, the seventy-eighth of ''The Federalist Papers''. Like all of ''The Federalist'' papers, it was published under the pseudonym Publius.
Titled "The Judiciary Department", Federalist No. 78 wa ...
."Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton
p. 21
References
External links
*
Internet Archive - The case of ''Elizabeth Rutgers versus Joshua Waddington''
{{Alexander Hamilton, state=collapsed
Legal history of New York (state)
1784 in case law
1784 in New York (state)