Paul W. Gates

The Suscol Principle, Preemption, and California Latifundia

THE CALIFORNIA LAND ACT of 1851, which provided for a Board of Land Commissioners to adjudicate the more than eight hundred claims inherited by the United States from Mexico, added heavily to the burdens of the United States Supreme Court and the federal district courts of California. Admittedly, judges at all levels had gained experience by adjudicating grants made by Spain, France, and England in the upper Mississippi Valley and the Gulf region, but the experience and precedents did not adequately prepare the courts for the many confusing and fraudulent claims in California. At first, from 1853 to 1855, the judges took a liberal position on the California claims, readily confirming titles that were far from complete and several that under Mexican law would have been considered invalid. One of the