<P> Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. (6 Pet .) 515 (1832), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional . </P> <P> The opinion is most famous for its dicta, which laid out the relationship between tribes and the state and federal governments, stating that the federal government was the sole authority to deal with Indian nations . It is considered to have built the foundations of the doctrine of tribal sovereignty in the United States . </P> <P> Chief Justice John Marshall laid out in this opinion that the relationship between the Indian Nations and the United States is that of nations . He reasoned that the United States, in the character of the federal government, inherited the rights of Great Britain as they were held by that nation . Those rights, he stated, include the sole right to deal with the Indian nations in North America, to the exclusion of any other European power . This did not include the rights of possession to their land or political dominion over their laws . He acknowledged that the exercise of conquest and purchase can give political dominion, but those are in the hands of the federal government, and individual states had no authority in American Indian affairs . Georgia's statute was therefore invalid . </P> <P> Marshall's language in Worcester may have been motivated by his regret that his earlier opinions in Fletcher v. Peck and Johnson v. M'Intosh had been used as a justification for Georgia's actions . Joseph Story considered it similarly, writing in a letter to his wife dated March 4, 1832: "Thanks be to God, the Court can wash their hands clean of the iniquity of oppressing the Indians and disregarding their rights ." </P>

What decision did the supreme court make in the worcester vs. georgia case
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