Martin Meenagh blog

    Nullification is the idea that a State government, within its own jurisdiction and in pursuit of its own sovereignty, can ‘nullify’ a federal law which the government of the State believes to be unconstitutional. Interposition is a related idea that the State can interpose itself between a bad federal law and a State citizen by declaring the law unconstitutional but not taking any further action other than the application of moral pressure to other states and federal bodies. Neither idea is viable as a legal recourse, and both have been rejected by the Supreme Court and the evidence of constitutional scholars at almost every point they have been mooted. They have persisted as ideas because of a series of attempts to employ them, many associated with racist and specious arguments wielded against native Americans and minorities, but also out of partisan fervour. The ideas emerged from the Quasi-War of 1798-1800 and the fears of the Democratic-Republican party in the 17...

  Andrew Jackson was one of the most consequential of American presidents, but also had a great impact on the republic before his presidency. The Battle of New Orleans, which he commanded, for instance, was a rare British defeat following the events of the War of 1812 and, though won after the peace was signed at a distance, allowed white Americans to attempt to salvage some dignity from the humiliation. Jackson’s campaign in the ‘Creek War’ associated with the larger 1812 conflict was also part of a move into West Florida which was very much a Jacksonian initiative and unimaginable without him. It strengthened forces in Georgia and the wider southeast in the confrontation with Tecumseh and Tenkswatawa’s confederacy which later produced a momentum for Indian removal and nullification in the region. This drive also allowed for President Monroe and John Quincy Adams to negotiate with Spain in 1820 for the West Florida territory, producing an agreement which created a boundary for...