 In 1823 , the state legislature chose Rowan and Henry Clay to represent the defendant in a second rehearing of Green v. Biddle before the U.S. Supreme Court . The case , which involved the constitutionality of laws passed by the General Assembly relating to land titles granted in Kentucky when the state was still a part of Virginia , was of interest to the legislature . The Supreme Court , however , refused the second rehearing , letting stand their previous opinion that Kentucky 's laws were in violation of the compact of separation from Virginia . 
