DALLAS, Alexander J-Treasury (BEP engraved portrait)

This is a list of cases reported in volume 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) of ''

United States Reports The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, orders, case tables (list of every case decided), in alphabetical order both by the name of the petitioner ...

'', decided by the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

from 1794 to 1799. Case reports from other tribunals also appear in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.).

Alexander Dallas and ''Dallas Reports''

Not all of the cases reported in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) are from the United States Supreme Court. Included are decisions from the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

, and the United States Circuit Court for the District of Pennsylvania. Alexander J. Dallas, a

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

lawyer and later

United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

, had been in the business of reporting local law cases for

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s and

periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...

s. When the US Supreme Court sat in Philadelphia from 1791–1800, 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''. When the US Supreme Court along with the rest of the new federal government moved in 1791 from the former capital,

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, to the nation's

temporary capital A temporary capital or a provisional capital is a city or town chosen by a government as an interim base of operations due to some difficulty in retaining or establishing control of a different metropolitan area. The most common circumstances leadin ...

in Philadelphia, Dallas was appointed the Supreme Court's first unofficial and unpaid

Supreme Court Reporter West's National Reporter System (NRS) is a set of case law reporters for federal courts and appellate state courts in the United States. It started with the ''North Western Reporter'' in 1879 which has its origin in ''The Syllabi'' (1876, ). Fed ...

. (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. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

in 1800. Dallas remained in Philadelphia;

William Cranch William Cranch (July 17, 1769 – September 1, 1855) was a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge and chief judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. A staunch Federalist Party, Federalist and nephe ...

then replaced him as

Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States The reporter of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States is the official charged with editing and publishing the opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States, both when announced and when they are published in permanent bound vol ...

Nominative Reports

In 1874, the U.S. government created the ''United States Reports'', and retroactively numbered older privately-published

case reports In medicine, a case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient, but usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence ...

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 Nominate reports, also known as nominative reports, named reports and private reports, is a legal term from common law, common-law jurisdictions referring to the various published collections of reports of English law, English cases in various court ...

"). As such, volumes 1–4 of ''United States Reports'' correspond to volumes 1–4 of ''Dallas Reports''. The dual citation form of, for example, ''Hunter v. Fairfax's Devisee'' is 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 305 (1796).

Courts in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.)

The cases reported in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) come from the Supreme Court of the United States, the

(Pa.), and the United States Circuit Court for the District of Pennsylvania (C.C.D. Pa.).

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 3 U.S. (3 Dall.)

The Supreme Court is established by Article III, Section 1 of the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

, 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 A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

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 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

nine 9 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 9 or nine may also refer to: Dates * AD 9, the ninth year of the AD era * 9 BC, the ninth year before the AD era * 9, numerical symbol for the month of September Places * Nine, Portugal, a parish in the ...

, ten, and back to

justices (always including one chief justice). When the cases in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) were decided, the Court comprised six of the following eleven justices at one time:

Notable Cases in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.)

''Calder v. Bull''

In '' Calder v. Bull''
3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 386 (1798)
the Supreme Court decided four important points of constitutional law: *First, the ''ex post facto'' clause of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...

applies to ''criminal'' laws that have at least one of four effects: (a) creates a crime and penalty that before passage of the law which was not illegal; (b) makes an existing crime of greater severity than it was when committed; (c) inflicts a greater punishment to an existing crime than applied before the law; (d) changes rules of evidence to make less, or different, evidence than the law required at the time of the crime to convict the offender. *Second, the Court lacked authority to nullify state laws that may violate that state's own constitution. *Third, no one should be compelled to do what the laws do not require; nor to refrain from acts which the laws permit. *Fourth, a state legislative act does not violate of the ''ex post facto'' clause if there is nothing done by the parties that is affected by the state law.

''Georgia v. Brailsford''

In '' Georgia v. Brailsford''
3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 1 (1794)
is significant as the only reported

jury trial A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a Trial, legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or Question of law, findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or Judicial panel, panel of judges makes all decisions. ...

held by the US Supreme Court. During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, the state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

passed a law that sequestered debts owed to British creditors. The

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Paris may refer to one of many treaties signed in Paris, France: Treaties 1200s and 1300s * Treaty of Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian Crusade * Treaty of Paris (1259), between Henry III of England and Louis IX of France * Trea ...

, however, asserted the validity of debts held by creditors on both sides. The case was filed directly in the United States Supreme Court, rather than in a lower trial court, under the Supreme Court's constitutionally-defined

original jurisdiction In common law legal systems original jurisdiction of a court is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, when a higher court has the power to review a lower court's decision. India In India, the S ...

''Hollingsworth v. Virginia''

In ''

Hollingsworth v. Virginia ''Hollingsworth v. Virginia'', 3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 378 (1798), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court ruled early in America's history that the President of the United States has no formal role in the p ...

''
3 U.S. (3 Dall.) 378 (1798)
the Court held the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

has no formal role in the process of amending the

, and that the Eleventh Amendment was binding on cases already pending before its ratification.

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

(''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 ''The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation'' is a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. It is taught and used at a majority of U.S. law schools and is also used in a majority of federal ...

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 The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The first court session was he ...

* "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 The United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama (in case citations, M.D. Ala.) is a federal court in the Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appea ...

* "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." =

** ''e.g.,''"Me." =

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. From 1820 until 1839, justices served lifetime ...

List of cases in 3 U.S. (3 Dall.)

Cases of the Supreme Court of the United States

Cases of other tribunals

Notes and References

External links

Case reports in volume 3 (3 Dall.) from Court Listener

Case reports in volume 3 (3 Dall.) from the Caselaw Access Project of

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Case reports in volume 3 (3 Dall.) from Justia

Case reports in volume 3 (3 Dall.) from Open Jurist
Website of the United States Supreme Court

United States Courts website about the Supreme Court

* ttps://www.americanbar.org/groups/young_lawyers/publications/after-the-bar/essentials/how-does-the-supreme-court-work/ American Bar Association, How Does the Supreme Court Work?
The Supreme Court Historical Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States Supreme Court cases by volume 1794 in United States case law 1795 in United States case law 1796 in United States case law 1797 in United States case law 1798 in United States case law 1799 in United States case law