Economic Growth.

Many Americans saw the stimulation of economic growth as one of the central responsibilities of government. This expectation accounted for the legislative preoccupation with economic regulation, most notably banking issues, and it equally influenced court dockets. Economic development was at the heart of cases that focused on a wide variety of legal issues. The impetus for the Cherokee litigation was the expansion of cotton cultivation through the Southwest; the landmark federalism cases of McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden affirmed congressional power to manage the national economy and sought to promote economic competition. A particularly crucial line of cases defined the property interests that courts would recognize. In the Supreme Court these cases centered on the Contract Clause, which barred states from passing any "Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts." Equally important decisions in the state courts transformed the...