After a Virginia court refused to enforce a U.S. Supreme Court judgment involving Loyalist land claims, the Supreme Court was forced to address whether it could review state court rulings on federal law. Justice Story's opinion held emphatically that it could: Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which authorized such review, was constitutional. The Constitution's supremacy would be a dead letter if fifty state courts of last resort could each interpret federal law independently. Martin secured national uniformity in federal law and remains the doctrinal basis for Supreme Court review of state decisions today.