Joseph Story and the Dartmouth College Case: Expansion of the Contract Clause

Abstract

In 1818, the United State Supreme Court ended the year's term without rendering a decision in the case that would become the foundation for the protection of corporate property rights from state intervention: Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward.1 From the inception of the controversy to the reading of Justice Marshall's opinion on the opening day of the Supreme Court's term in 1819, Justice Joseph Story played a critical role in molding the Dartmouth College case into a solid foundation for the "protection to private property against the authority of the government--a principle which became the cornerstone of the American doctrine of constitutional government."2 Justice Story not only helped create the legal strategy of Dartmouth College's chief counsel, Daniel Webster, but his eloquent concurring opinion repaired the shortfalls of Chief Justice Marshall's opinion.