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.Anne Ashmore, DATES OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS AND ARGUMENTS, Library, Supreme Court of the United States, 26 December 2018. Case reports from other tribunals also appear in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.).
Alexander Dallas and Dallas' Reports Not 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.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
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 In 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.) The 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.)
The 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). 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 (21–1) –December 15, 1800(Resigned) William Cushing Associate Justice Massachusetts original seat when the Court was established (Acclamation) –September 13, 1810(Died) James Iredell Associate Justice North Carolina original seat when the Court was established (Acclamation) –October 20, 1799 William Paterson Associate Justice New Jersey Thomas Johnson (Acclamation) –September 8, 1806(Died) Samuel Chase Associate Justice Maryland John Blair, Jr. (Acclamation) –June 19, 1811(Died) Bushrod Washington Associate Justice Virginia James Wilson (Acclamation) (Recess Appointment)–November 26, 1829(Died) Alfred Moore Associate Justice North Carolina James Iredell (Acclamation) –January 26, 1804
Notable case in 4 U.S. (4 Dall.)
New York v. Connecticut
New 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
Under 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.)
Cases of the Supreme Court of the United States
Case Name Page & year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower court Disposition New York v. Connecticut 1 (1799) Ellsworth none none original injunction upheld Hazlehurst v. United States 6 (1799) per curiam none none C.C.D.S.C. non prosequitur Turner v. Enrille 7 (1799) per curiam none none C.C.D.S.C. reversed Turner v. Bank of N. Am. 8 (1799) Ellsworth none none C.C.D.S.C. reversed Mossman v. Higginson 12 (1800) per curiam none none C.C.D. Ga. writ of error quashed Cooper v. Telfair 14 (1800) seriatim: Washington, Chase, Paterson, Cushing none none C.C.D. Ga. affirmed Williamson v. Kincaid 20 (1800) per curiam none none C.C.D. Ga. certification Rutherford v. Fisher 22 (1800) per curiam, and Chase none none C.C.D.N.J. writ of error quashed Blair v. Miller 21 (1800) per curiam none none C.C.D. Va. writ of error quashed Course v. Stead 22 (1800) per curiam none none C.C.D. Ga. reversed Blaine v. Ship Clarles Carter 22 (1800) per curiam none none C.C.D. Va. dismissed Priestman v. United States 28 (1800) per curiam, and Chase none none C.C.D. Pa. affirmed Talbot v. Ship Amelia 34 (1800) John Marshall (after 1801 reargument) none none C.C.D.N.Y. multiple Bas v. Tingy 37 (1800) seriatim: Moore,This is the only opinion for the US Supreme Court written by Alfred Moore. Washington, Paterson none none C.C.D. Pa. affirmed
Cases of other tribunals