In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, many court cases made it to the newly established Supreme Court. Established in 1789 as the highest federal court in the United States, the Supreme Court is used to settle cases involving federal laws after being argued at state level courts. With one chief justice and eight other justices, the majority decides the fate of the case. In the early years of the Supreme Court five court cases set the precedent for years to come including Gibbons vs Ogden, Marbury versus Madison, Fletcher versus .
Peck, McCulloch vs Maryland, and Worcester versus Georgia.
In the early nineteenth century, the state of New York created a law that allowed people to operate steamboats on waterways within state jurisdiction. Some other states that also had this law required out-of-state steam boats to pay additional fees. Thomas Gibbons, also a steamboat operate did business between New York and New Jersey under a federal coastal license. New York had already granted a monopoly over this route to Aaron Ogden who owned the property. Ogden then tried to get an injunction against Gibbons in a state court of New York. New York ruled in favor and ordered Gibbons to halt his operation. Gibbons disagreed with this decision because of an act of Congress in 1793 giving them the power to regulate commerce. Gibbons then appealed to the Supreme Court who reviewed the case in 1824, and ruled in favor of him six to zero. The fact that Congress had the power to regulate interstate trade revealed that New York had violated the federal licensing act of 1793, and made this case unconstitutional. To ensure this did not happen again Congress wrote the Commerce clause, Clause three of Article I Section eight, which gave them the power to regulate interstate trade. This case set a precedent because congressional powers of regulating trade and other activities expanded vastly.
