Texas v. White

US Supreme Court decision of 1869 that dealt with the legal status of Confederate and Reconstruction governments. The provisional Reconstruction government of Texas sued for the return of property sold by the Confederate government during the Civil War. The case raised the question of which, if either, of the two governments was the valid, legal representative of Texas with the power to control state finances. The Court ruled that since secession was unconstitutional the Confederate state government had never existed as a legal body. It therefore had no right to dispose of state property. The Court also ruled that the provisional post-war government was a valid legal state government with the right to sue in the name of the people of Texas.