Granting the federal government a purchasing monopoly drove Native land prices down

Evidence

At least one commentator has noted that Johnson, by holding that only the federal government could purchase Native American lands, created a system of monopsony, which avoided bidding competition between settlers and thus enabled the acquisition of Native American lands at the lowest possible cost. — Wikipedia contributors, Johnson v. McIntosh, 16

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: a legal ruling as an economic instrument — monopsony as a tool of dispossession, legible to economists who don’t read law.
• DEEPTHINKING: Reframes a constitutional-law landmark as deliberate market design, a lens that reframes both the case and land-acquisition history.