Which court case overturned more previous decisions, Ableman v. Booth or Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency?
Ableman v. Booth Ableman v. Booth, 62 U.S. 506 (1859) , was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that State courts cannot issue rulings on federal law that contradict the decisions of federal courts, overturning a decision by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. The Supreme Court held that under the Constitution, the federal courts have the final power to decide cases arising under the Constitution and federal statutes, and that the States do not have the power to overturn those decisions. Thus, Wisconsin did not have the authority to nullify federal judgments or statutes.
Commonwealth v. O'Malley Commonwealth v. O'Malley, 97 Mass. 584 (1867), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts that overturned a conviction for embezzlement because the evidence supported a case for larceny, even though the defendant had previously been acquitted of larceny. The case illustrates the problem of gaps in similar common law offenses with technical differences, and this problem was later addressed by consolidation of the common law offenses in things like the Model Penal Code.