Hiring William Wirt, a former U.S. Attorney General, the Cherokee argued their position before the US Supreme Court in "Georgia v. Tassel" (the Court granted a writ of error for a Cherokee convicted in a Georgia court for a murder occurring in Cherokee territory, though the state refused to accept the writ) and "Cherokee Nation v. Georgia" (1831) (the court dismissed this on technical grounds for lack of jurisdiction). In writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice Marshall described the Cherokee Nation as a "domestic dependent nation" with no rights binding on a state.