No, this is a common misconception due to the way Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the opinion of the Court for Worcester v. Georgia, (1832), mixing the legal decision with his personal beliefs.
President Jackson ignored John Marshall's personal opinion about the federal government owing protection to the Cherokee, but that wasn't part of the official ruling in Worcester because the United States was not a party to the case. Courts only have authority to issue legally binding decisions against people or entities named as a party to the suit being tried. Jackson may have had a moral and ethical obligation to defend the Cherokee Nation against Georgia's aggression, but no legal duty had been established.
The only legal ruling in the case was against the state of Georgia, which released the missionaries held in prison for living on Cherokee land without holding a state license, but ignored the part of the decision that stated Georgia had no right to regulate the Cherokee or their land. President Jackson declined to intervene, but was not legally required to do so, anyway.
Jackson continued to support Georgia in its mission to drive the Native Americans from their land, and successfully hobbled Marshall by nominating like-minded Associate Justices to vacancies on the then seven-member court. By politicizing the Court, Jackson subverted its power as one of the checks and balances on the Executive and Legislative branches.
The sad conclusion to this story was the 1836 ratification of a removal treaty between the United States government and the Cherokee Nation, the Treaty of New Echota. This resulted in the US Army forcibly relocating the Native Americans from their ancestral land under the Van Buren administration in 1838, a travesty later known as The Trail of Tears.
Case Citation:
Worcester v. Georgia, 31 US 515 (1832)
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