Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-166_8n59.pdf
Page Number: 10.0

Cite as:  598 U. S. ____ (2023) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

may be necessary to satisfy the taxes due thereon.”  Act of 
July 14, 1798, §13, 1 Stat. 601.  Ten States adopted similar 
statutes  shortly  after  the  founding.1   For  example,  Mary-
land  required  that  only  so  much  land  be  sold  “as  may  be
sufficient to discharge the taxes thereon due,” and provided
that  if  the  sale  produced  more  than  needed  for  the  taxes,
“such overplus of money” shall be paid to the owner.  1797 
Md. Laws ch. 90, §§4–5.  This Court enforced one such state 
statute against a Georgia tax collector, reasoning that “if a
whole tract of land was sold when a small part of it would 
have been sufficient for the taxes, which at present appears 
to be the case, the collector unquestionably exceeded his au-
thority.”  Stead’s  Executors  v.  Course,  4  Cranch  403,  414 
(1808) (Marshall, C. J., for the Court).

Like  its  sister  States,  Virginia  originally  provided  that 
the Commonwealth could seize and sell “so much” of the de-
linquent tracts “as shall be sufficient to discharge the said 
taxes.”  1781 Va. Acts p. 153, §4.  But about a decade later, 
Virginia enacted a new scheme, which provided for the for-
feiture of any delinquent land to the Commonwealth.  Vir-
ginia passed this harsh forfeiture regime in response to the
“loose, cheap and unguarded system of disposing of her pub-
lic  lands”  that  the  Commonwealth  had  adopted  immedi-
ately following statehood.  McClure v. Maitland, 24 W. Va. 
561, 564 (1884).  To encourage settlement, Virginia permit-
ted “any person [to] acquire title to so much . . . unappropri-
ated lands as he or she shall desire to purchase” at the price
of 40 pounds per 100 acres.  1779 Va. Acts p. 95, §2.  Within 
two decades, nearly all of Virginia’s land had been claimed, 

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1 1796 Conn. Acts p. 356–357, §§32, 36; 1797 Del. Laws p. 1260, §26;
1791 Ga. Laws p. 14; 1801 Ky. Acts pp. 78–79, §4; 1797 Md. Laws ch. 90,
§§4–5; 1786 Mass. Acts pp. 360–361; 1792 N. H. Laws p. 194; 1792 N. C.
Sess. Laws p. 23, §5; 1801 N. Y. Laws pp. 498–499, §17; 1787 Vt. Acts & 
Resolves p. 126.  Kentucky made an exception for unregistered land, or 
land that the owner had “fail[ed] to list . . . for taxation,” with such land 
forfeiting to the State.  1801 Ky. Acts p. 80, §5.