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.