The Ableman decision emphasized the dual form of American government and the independence of State and federal courts from each other.

The federal law in question was a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act, which northern free states saw as violating their territorial integrity, and conflicting with their traditions of liberty.

In 1854, abolitionist editor Sherman Booth was arrested for violating the Act[1] when he allegedly helped incite a mob to rescue an escaped slave, Joshua Glover, in Wisconsin from US Marshal Stephen V. R. Ableman.

The US Marshal appealed to the state supreme court, which ruled the federal law unconstitutional and affirmed Booth's release.

Wisconsin did not have the power to nullify the judgment of the federal court or to hold the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional.

As a result, in the 1856 state elections, the new Wisconsin Republican party ran on a strong anti-Federal Fugitive Slave Act platform, and took both houses of the legislature.

[2] Booth was ultimately pardoned for his offense by President James Buchanan shortly before he left office in 1861.