From Natural Born “Subjects” to Natural Born “Citizens”

As I have explained elsewhere, in Chisholm v. Georgia, both Chief Justice Jay and Justice Wilson conceived of this sovereignty as residing in the individual, rather than in a collectivity known as “the People,” which is why they thought an individual citizen could sue a state for breach of contract.  In my Seegers Lecture on Jurisprudence at Valparaiso University School of Law on October 3rd, I will elaborate on the implications of this individual conception of popular sovereignty for the concept of “the consent of the governed.”