http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1818/ U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, presented by The Oyez Project (www.oyez.org) en-us <p>Did the New Hampshire legislature unconstitutionally interfere with Dartmouth College's rights under the Contract Clause?</p><p>In a 6-to-1 decision, the Court held that the College's corporate charter qualified as a contract between private parties, with which the legislature could not interfere. The fact that the government had commissioned the charter did not transform the school into a civil institution. Chief Justice Marshall's opinion emphasized that the term "contract" referred to transactions involving individual property rights, not to "the political relations between the government and its citizens."</p> http://www.oyez.org/cases/1792-1850/1818/1818_0/