The Supreme Court of the United States helped the Cherokee to fight removal in 1838. The Cherokee decided that the best way to remain on their ancestral land in modern-day Georgia was to set up a legal rather than physical fight. They went to the Supreme Court with the argument that the Cherokee were their own nation and thus the president had no authority to evict them. The Supreme Court agreed, but Andrew Jackson refused to obey this edict and had the Cherokee evicted by force, sending them on the Trail of Tears with many other native tribes.