 According to Prof. Rowe, "[f] ew major controversies have ended with as slight a whimper as the battle over federal common law crimes that raged in the first two decades of the American republic." Rowe argues that "without acknowledging it, the Hudson Court disapproved at least eight circuit court cases, brushed off the views of all but one Justice who sat on the Court prior to 1804, and departed from what was arguably the original understanding of those who framed the Constitution and penned the Judiciary Act of 1789." Rowe views Hudson as a codification of an issue decided by public opinion, including during the 1800 presidential election: "Hudson set onto tablets the principles that guided the Jeffersonians during their wanderings in the desert."
