Recusal and the Legal System
Chief Justice Marshall had laid out the foundations of the way in which we now treat sovereign Indian territories in the United States in an 1832 case, Worcester v. Georgia. Shortly after, it was reported that President Andrew Jackson, in his known scorn for the Native American tribes, said “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!” Jackson was confident the sovereignty of the tribes would never be solidified because the courts only had the ability to define and rule of laws, not enforce them. This presidential outburst encapsulates an important and often overlooked point: courts only have as much power as the citizens give them. The court system of the United States is often seen as the gold standard of the world. Our lawyers, judges, and arbiters are often brought into other nations as they build their legal systems. We have built a system that handles more...