The Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee case is a Supreme Court case from 1816 that challenged appellate jurisdiction over state court decisions, specifically, the ability of the Supreme Court to hear and decide state cases where state court’s decided cases based on federal law. A British loyalist, Lord Fairfax, owned land in Virginia during the Revolutionary War when Virginia seized the land and gave a tract of it to David Hunter. Following the war, the United States entered into a treaty with Great Britain guaranteeing protection of lands owned by British loyalists. Once Lord Fairfax died and his land ownership passed to his heir, Thomas Martin, he sought to recover the land and sued. The Virginia court ruled that Fairfax and Martin were the owners of the land but upon appeal to the state appellate court, it was reversed in favor of Hunter.…