Case Citator › Worcester v. Georgia

Worcester v. Georgia

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Abrogated
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
31 U.S. 515
Decided
Confirmed treatments
2
Flagged citations read
41 of 41
Citing cases (total)
41
Treatment dates
1980–2022
Abrogated
A reviewed court treats this case as abrogated by later authority. Abrogated in part. All 41 flagged citations to Worcester v. Georgia have been read.
More on how this was screened

The Supreme Court has displaced Worcester's categorical statement that state law has no force within reservation boundaries. The two confirmed treatments are listed below. Later courts still cite Worcester for tribal self-government and the interpretation of Indian treaties; its decision invalidating Georgia's law under the Cherokee treaties was not itself reversed.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

41 later cases cite Worcester v. Georgia; 41 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Worcester v. Georgia?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Abrogated

  • The Supreme Court rejected Worcester's premise that Indian country is territorially separate from the States and held that a State may prosecute a non-Indian for a crime against an Indian in Indian country unless federal law or tribal self-government precludes it.

    Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    But this Court long ago made clear that Worcester rested on a mistaken understanding of the relationship between Indian country and the States.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Limited

  • The Supreme Court rejected Worcester's absolute exclusion of state law from reservations and required a context-specific inquiry into state authority and tribal self-government.

    White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    Long ago the Court departed from Mr. Chief Justice Marshall’s view that “the laws of [a State] can have no force” within reservation boundaries, Worcester v. Georgia, 6 Pet. 515, 561 (1832).
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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