Hobson tells us that his decision to write about Fletcher v. Peck (1810) reflects its “landmark status as the first case to expound the contract clause and as the first application of judicial review to a state law” (xii). He is correct on both counts. The Georgia legislature’s 1795 sale of its western lands to four private land companies initially seemed unremarkable. Georgia had significant financial problems, and the sales secured needed revenue. Land speculation, in turn, was rampant and opportunities for investment and profit fit nicely within the entrepreneurial spirit of a rapidly developing nation. But after pervasive corruption was uncovered, the state passed a measure in 1796 to rescind the sales, memorialized by “a public burning of the notorious act and accompanying records,” a graphic and “singular act of purgation” (54).
The individuals who purchased the land in good faith were neither impressed nor amused. They initiated a...