Skip to main content
SCOTUS Case

Mississippi v. Johnson

Primary source

Background below is sourced from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). We link back to the source for attribution; edits made by Wikipedia editors after our last scrape may not appear here.

Background

Mississippi v. Johnson

Mississippi v. Johnson, 71 U.S. (4 Wall.) 475 (1867), was the first suit to be brought against a President of the United States in the United States Supreme Court . The state of Mississippi attempted to sue President Andrew Johnson for enforcing the Reconstruction Acts . The court decided, based on a previous decision of _Marbury v. Madison _ that the President has two kinds of tasks: ministerial and discretionary. Discretionary tasks are ones the president can choose to do or not to do, while ministerial tasks are ones required by his office: those whose failure to perform could leave him in violation of the Constitution . The court ruled that by enforcing Reconstruction, Johnson was acting in an "executive and political" capacity—a discretionary rather than a ministerial one—and so he could not be sued.

See also

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mississippi_v._Johnson&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: See also")

Further reading

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mississippi_v._Johnson&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: Further reading")

External links

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mississippi_v._Johnson&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: External links")

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mississippi_v._Johnson&oldid=1318846704 "

Read the full Wikipedia article

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.