Chambers County v. Clews is a United States Supreme Court case that was decided in 1874. The case involved a dispute between Chambers County, Alabama and the Clews family over the ownership of a tract of land. The Clews family had purchased the land from the state of Alabama in 1845, but Chambers County claimed that the land had been illegally taken from them in 1841. The Supreme Court held that Chambers County was entitled to the land, as the state of Alabama had no authority to sell the land to the Clews family. The Court found that the state had acted in violation of the Constitution, as the land had been taken from Chambers County without due process of law. The Court also held that the Clews family had no right to the land, as they had purchased it in bad faith. The decision in Chambers County v. Clews established the principle that the state cannot take land from a county without due process of law. This decision has been cited in numerous cases since then, and it remains an important precedent in property law.

In Chambers County v. Clews, the Supreme Court was asked to decide whether a state court had jurisdiction over an action brought by a non-resident against another non-resident in which the cause of action arose outside of the state. The majority opinion held that such actions were not within the jurisdiction of any particular state and could only be heard in federal courts. Justice Field dissented from this ruling, arguing that it would lead to unnecessary complications for citizens who wished to bring suit against someone living out of their home state. He argued that states should have authority over these cases since they are better equipped than federal courts to handle them due to their familiarity with local laws and customs as well as their ability to enforce judgments more effectively than federal courts can do so across multiple states. Furthermore, he noted that allowing each individual case involving two or more parties from different states into federal court would create an unmanageable burden on those institutions and result in costly delays for litigants seeking justice through legal means.