...conclusions reached through Marshall's textual exposition of the contract clause. Johnson's decision rested on "a general principle, on the reason and nature...things: a principle which will impose laws even on the Deity."120 In subsequent cases Marshall determined the meaning of the Constitution exclusively through...

...separate opinion maintaining that a state has no power to deprive people of property it has given them: "I do not hesitate to declare that a state does not...principle which will impose laws even on the Deity." I have previously quoted United States Supreme Court Justice William Patterson's views in Vanhorne's...

...Marshall's Contract Clause interpretation and voided the Rescinding Act as a violation of natural law "on the reason and nature of things: a principle which will impose laws even on the Deity." 32 Authorities agree that Fletcher was "one of the leading decisions of American constitutional law."...

...Marshall's Contract Clause interpretation and voided the Rescinding Act as a violation of natural law "on the reason and nature of things: a principle which will impose laws even on the Deity."32 Authorities agree that Fletcher was "one of the leading decisions of American constitutional...

...are common to our free institutions" or, even more strikingly, of what Justice Johnson describes as "the reason and nature of things: a principle which will impose laws even on the deity."40 I use this as the occasion for mentioning an important debate in seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury...

...do not hesitate to declare that a state does not possess the power of revoking its own grants. But 1 do it on a general principle, on the reason and nature of things."26 If we put aside this objection to Marshall's ruling on the second question, a different...