In the supreme court case of what did the court rule the federal governmentnot the united states

Worcester v. Georgia

The 1932 case, Worcester v. Georgia, ruled unconstitutional a Georgia law requiring non-Native Americans requiring a license from the state to be on Native American land.  The specific matter of the case itself is not remembered as much as the fact that the court stated that the federal government is the sole authority to deal with a Native American nation.  From this Supreme Court assertion came the beginnings of tribal sovereignty within the United States for Native American nations -- that the US government would deal with them as domestic nations inside the United States.