Mississippi v. Johnson

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Mississippi v. Johnson 71 U.S. 475 (1866) was the first suit United States Supreme Court case to be brought against a President of the United States. The state of Mississippi attempted to sue then President Andrew Johnson for enforcing Reconstruction. The court decided, based on a previous decision of Marbury v. Madison that the President has two kinds of task: ministerial and discretionary. Discretionary tasks or ones the president can choose to do or not do. Ministerial tasks are ones required by his job, in fact if he fails to do them he could be violating the Constitution. The court ruled that by enforcing reconstruction Johnson was filling the wishes of Congress, a ministerial task, and so he could not be sued.