This is a list of cases reported in volume 4 U.S. (4 Dall.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1799 and 1800.[1] Case reports from other tribunals also appear in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.).
| Supreme Court of the United States | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Interactive map of Supreme Court of the United States | |
| 38°53′26″N 77°00′16″W / 38.89056°N 77.00444°W | |
| Established | March 4, 1789 |
| Location | Washington, D.C. |
| Coordinates | 38°53′26″N 77°00′16″W / 38.89056°N 77.00444°W |
| Composition method | Presidential nomination with Senate confirmation |
| Authorised by | Constitution of the United States, Art. III, § 1 |
| Judge term length | life tenure, subject to impeachment and removal |
| Number of positions | 9 (by statute) |
| Website | supremecourt |
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Alexander Dallas and Dallas' Reports
editNot all of the cases reported in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.) are from the United States Supreme Court. Included are decisions from various city, state, and lower federal courts sitting in Philadelphia, dating from the colonial period and the first decade after independence, as well as reports from a state court of Delaware, and the British Privy Council in an appeal from New Hampshire. Alexander J. Dallas, a Philadelphia lawyer and later United States Secretary of the Treasury, had been in the business of reporting local law cases for newspapers and periodicals. When the US Supreme Court sat in Philadelphia from 1791 to 1800, he collected their cases as well, and later began compiling his case reports in a bound volume which he called Reports of cases ruled and adjudged in the courts of Pennsylvania, before and since the Revolution.[2]
When the US Supreme Court along with the rest of the new federal government moved in 1791 from the former capital, New York City, to the nation's temporary capital in Philadelphia, Dallas was appointed the Supreme Court's first unofficial and unpaid Supreme Court Reporter. (Court reporters in that age received no salary, but were expected to profit from the publication and sale of their compiled decisions.) Dallas continued to collect and publish Pennsylvania and other decisions, adding federal Supreme Court cases to his reports. Dallas published four volumes of decisions during his tenure as Reporter, known as the Dallas Reports.
The Supreme Court moved to the new capital city of Washington D.C. in 1800. Dallas remained in Philadelphia; William Cranch then replaced him as Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Nominative reports
editIn 1874, the U.S. government created the United States Reports, and retroactively numbered older privately published case reports as part of the new series. As a result, cases appearing in volumes 1–90 of U.S. Reports have dual citation forms; one for the volume number of U.S. Reports, and one for the volume number of the reports named for the relevant reporter of decisions (these are called "nominative reports"). As such, volumes 1–4 of United States Reports correspond to volumes 1–4 of Dallas' Reports. The dual citation form of, for example, Turner v. Bank of North America is 4 U.S. (4 Dall.) 8 (1799).
Courts in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.)
editThe cases reported in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.) come from a miscellany of tribunals in the United States and Britain: the Supreme Court of the United States; the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (Pa.); the Pennsylvania High Court of Errors and Appeals (Pa. Ct. Err. & App.) (which from its creation in 1780 to its dissolution in 1808 was the court of last resort in the Pennsylvania judiciary); the Delaware Court of Errors and Appeals (Del. Ct. Err. & App.); the Mayor's Court of Philadelphia; the United States Circuit Court for the District of Pennsylvania (C.C.D. Pa.); the Privy Council of the United Kingdom (P.C.). (To avoid confusion, the Pennsylvania Court of Errors and Appeals will be cited as "Pa. Ct. Err. & App." rather than as "Pa.", although the latter abbreviation should be used, according to Bluebook rules, for the highest court in Pennsylvania at a particular time. Rather, "Pa." will consistently be used to indicate the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.)
Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 4 U.S. (4 Dall.)
editThe Supreme Court is established by Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which says: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court . . .". The size of the Court is not specified; the Constitution leaves it to Congress to set the number of justices. Under the Judiciary Act of 1789 Congress originally fixed the number of justices at six (one chief justice and five associate justices).[3] Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices (always including one chief justice).
When the cases in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.) were decided, the Court comprised six of the following seven justices at one time:
| Portrait | Justice | Office | Home State | Succeeded | Date confirmed by the Senate (Vote) |
Tenure on Supreme Court |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Oliver Ellsworth | Chief Justice | Connecticut | John Rutledge | March 4, 1796 (21–1) |
March 8, 1796 – December 15, 1800 (Resigned) |
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William Cushing | Associate Justice | Massachusetts | original seat when the Court was established | September 26, 1789 (Acclamation) |
February 2, 1790 – September 13, 1810 (Died) |
 |
James Iredell | Associate Justice | North Carolina | original seat when the Court was established | February 10, 1790 (Acclamation) |
May 12, 1790 – October 20, 1799 (Died) |
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William Paterson | Associate Justice | New Jersey | Thomas Johnson | March 4, 1793 (Acclamation) |
March 11, 1793 – September 8, 1806 (Died) |
 |
Samuel Chase | Associate Justice | Maryland | John Blair, Jr. | January 27, 1796 (Acclamation) |
February 4, 1796 – June 19, 1811 (Died) |
 |
Bushrod Washington | Associate Justice | Virginia | James Wilson | December 20, 1798 (Acclamation) |
November 9, 1798 (Recess Appointment) – November 26, 1829 (Died) |
 |
Alfred Moore | Associate Justice | North Carolina | James Iredell | December 9, 1799 (Acclamation) |
April 21, 1800 – January 26, 1804 (Resigned) |
Notable case in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.)
editNew York v. Connecticut
editNew York v. Connecticut, 4 U.S. (4 Dall.) 1 (1799), is a 1799 case in the Supreme Court of the United States between the State of New York and the State of Connecticut. The case was the first in which the Supreme Court exercised its original jurisdiction under Article III of the United States Constitution to hear controversies between two states.
Citation style
editUnder the Judiciary Act of 1789 the federal court structure at the time comprised District Courts, which had general trial jurisdiction; Circuit Courts, which had mixed trial and appellate (from the US District Courts) jurisdiction; and the United States Supreme Court, which had appellate jurisdiction over the federal District and Circuit courts—and for certain issues over state courts. The Supreme Court also had limited original jurisdiction (i.e., in which cases could be filed directly with the Supreme Court without first having been heard by a lower federal or state court). There were one or more federal District Courts and/or Circuit Courts in each state, territory, or other geographical region.
Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions.
- "C.C.D." = United States Circuit Court for the District of . . .
- e.g.,"C.C.D.N.J." = United States Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey
- "D." = United States District Court for the District of . . .
- e.g.,"D. Mass." = United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
- "E." = Eastern; "M." = Middle; "N." = Northern; "S." = Southern; "W." = Western
- e.g.,"C.C.S.D.N.Y." = United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
- e.g.,"M.D. Ala." = United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
- "Ct. Cl." = United States Court of Claims
- The abbreviation of a state's name alone indicates the highest appellate court in that state's judiciary at the time.
- e.g.,"Pa." = Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- e.g.,"Me." = Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
List of cases in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.)
editCases of the Supreme Court of the United States
editCases of other tribunals
editNotes and references
edit- ↑ Anne Ashmore, DATES OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS AND ARGUMENTS, Library, Supreme Court of the United States, 26 December 2018.
- ↑ Cohen, Morris and O'Connor, Sharon H. A Guide to the Early Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States, (Fred B. Rothman & Co, Littleton Colorado, 1995
- ↑ "Supreme Court Research Guide". Georgetown Law Library. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
- ↑ This is the only opinion for the US Supreme Court written by Alfred Moore.
- ↑ Res publica is a Latin form of the term "Commonwealth," meaning in this context the "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." Pennsylvania is one of four states (along with Massachusetts, Virginia, and Kentucky) to refer to itself as a "Commonwealth." It is interchangeable with "State." In the early 19th Century the English term Commonwealth replaced Respublica in new Pennsylvania case names.
- ↑ The Mayor's Court of Philadelphia had jurisdiction over minor felonies, misdemeanors, and other small matters. "Mayor's Court (Philadelphia, Pa.) docket, Historical Society of Pennsylvania". discover.hsp.org. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
See also
editExternal links
edit- Case reports in volume 4 (4 Dall.) from Court Listener
- Case reports in volume 4 (4 Dall.) from the Caselaw Access Project of Harvard Law School
- Case reports in volume 4 (4 Dall.) from Justia
- Case reports in volume 4 (4 Dall.) from Open Jurist
- Website of the United States Supreme Court
- United States Courts website about the Supreme Court
- National Archives, Records of the Supreme Court of the United States
- American Bar Association, How Does the Supreme Court Work?
- The Supreme Court Historical Society
