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''Cohens v. Virginia'', , was a United States Supreme Court decision most noted for the Court's assertion of its power to review state supreme court decisions in criminal law matters when the defendant claims that their Constitutional rights have been violated. The Court had previously asserted a similar jurisdiction over civil cases involving American parties. The case involved a prominent Baltimore banking family, a U.S. Senator and two U.S. Representatives as attorneys for the opposing sides, and was centered on two defendants, Mendes J. Cohen and Philip J. Cohen, who would later rise to the positions of U.S. Postmaster (Philip), and U.S. Army Colonel and Maryland Delegate (Mendes).〔Jean Edward Smith, ''John Marshall: Definer Of A Nation'', New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1996, pp. 456-459 ()〕〔 ==Background== Congress passed a bill to establish a National Lottery, to raise money for the District of Columbia, and which was conducted by the municipal government.〔 Virginia, meanwhile, had created its own state lotteries, and passed a law to prohibit the sale of out-of-state lottery tickets.〔 Philip and Mendes Cohen were brothers who managed the Norfolk branch of Cohens Lottery and Exchange Office of Baltimore.〔 The Cohen firm was a leading vendor of lottery tickets in the United States, through its offices in New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and Norfolk, and nationwide through the mail.〔 The firm had a strong reputation in an otherwise unsavory field, and was known for quick payouts to winners, which led to later success in the insurance and banking fields.〔 The firm had been established in 1821 by another brother, Jacob I. Cohen, Jr. (a future president of the Baltimore City Council), who had emigrated from Bavaria, and brought each of his five brothers into the firm.〔〔(Cohen, The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia )〕 On June 1, 1820, Philip and Mendes Cohen were charged by authorities in Norfolk with selling tickets for the National Lottery in Virginia.〔 The brothers were convicted in local court and fined $100.〔 The issue was significant as "lotteries were one of the chief means by which governments raised capital in the" early 1800s.〔 It would challenge the "free flow of commerce" embodied in the U.S. Constitution and could have emboldened other states to challenge the sale of National Lottery tickets elsewhere.〔 The Cohens hired two of the country's top lawyers for their appeal: U.S. Senator William Pinkney of Maryland and recently retired U.S. Representative David A. Ogden of New York.〔 Pinkney was an acquaintance of the Cohen family and a strong proponent of the necessary and proper clause and the doctrine of sovereign immunity, and he organized a public relations campaign on behalf of the federal government's powers for this case.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cohens v. Virginia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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