Hepburn v. Griswold

In Hepburn v. Griswold (February 7, 1870), the Court ruled by a four-to-three majority that Congress lacked the power to make the notes legal tender. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, despite his involvement in passage of the Legal Tender Act as secretary of the Treasury during…

…Court announced its decision in Hepburn v. Griswold (1870), a case that involved the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act of 1862. The court, in a 5–3 vote (including a vote for the majority by the ailing Grier), struck down the Legal Tender Act, thus denying Congress the power to…

…as war-emergency legal tender (Hepburn v. Griswold, 1870) became the majority’s stand when the court reversed itself the next year and led to the permanent legitimation of paper money in the United States.