List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 109

This is a list of cases reported in volume 109 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1883 and 1884.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 109 U.S.

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. Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices.
When the cases in volume 109 U.S. were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:

Portrait	Justice	Office	Home State	Succeeded	Date confirmed by the Senate	Tenure on Supreme Court
	Morrison Waite	Chief Justice	Ohio	Salmon P. Chase		– March 23, 1888
	Samuel Freeman Miller	Associate Justice	Iowa	Peter Vivian Daniel		– October 13, 1890
	Stephen Johnson Field	Associate Justice	California	newly created seat		– December 1, 1897
	Joseph P. Bradley	Associate Justice	New Jersey	newly created seat		– January 22, 1892
	John Marshall Harlan	Associate Justice	Kentucky	David Davis		– October 14, 1911
	William Burnham Woods	Associate Justice	Georgia	William Strong		– May 14, 1887
	Stanley Matthews	Associate Justice	Ohio	Noah Haynes Swayne		– March 22, 1889
	Horace Gray	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	Nathan Clifford		– September 15, 1902
	Samuel Blatchford	Associate Justice	New York	Ward Hunt		– July 7, 1893

Notable Cases in 109 U.S.

''Civil Rights Cases''

The Civil Rights Cases, , were a group of five cases in which the Supreme Court held that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments did not empower Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals. The holding regarding the 13th Amendment was overturned by the Court in the 1968 case Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. The holding regarding the 14th Amendment not applying to private entities is still valid precedent, but in the 1964 case Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, the Supreme Court held that Congress could prohibit racial discrimination by private actors via another part of the Constitution, the Commerce Clause.
The only dissenting justice in the Civil Rights Cases, John Marshall Harlan, correctly predicted the decision's negative long-term consequences: it put an end to the attempts by Radical Republicans to ensure the civil rights of blacks, and triggered widespread segregation in housing, employment, and public life that confined them to second-class citizenship throughout much of the United States until the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement.

''Ex Parte Crow Dog''

Ex parte Crow Dog, , was a Supreme Court decision that followed the death of one member of a Native American tribe at the hands of another on reservation land. Crow Dog was a member of the Brulé band of the Lakota Sioux. On August 5, 1881 he shot and killed Spotted Tail, a Lakota chief. The tribal council dealt with the incident according to Sioux tradition, and Crow Dog paid restitution to the dead man's family. However, the U.S. authorities then prosecuted Crow Dog for murder in a federal court. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang. He petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the federal court had no jurisdiction to try cases when the offense had already been tried by the tribal council. The Court found in his favor and Crow Dog was released. The case led to the Major Crimes Act in 1885, which placed some major crimes under federal jurisdiction if committed by a Native American against another Native American on a reservation or on tribal land.

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 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. 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 volume 109 U.S.

Case Name	Page and year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower Court	Disposition
Osborne v. Adams County		Harlan	none	none	C.C.D. Neb.	rehearing denied
Civil Rights Cases		Bradley	none	Harlan	C.C.D. Kan.	certification
Poindexter v. Greenhow		Waite	none	none	Va. Hustings Ct.	advancement denied
United States v. Hamilton		Bradley	none	none	C.C.M.D. Tenn.	dismissed
United States v. Gale		Bradley	none	none	C.C.N.D. Fla.	certification
Steever v. Rickman		Waite	none	none	not indicated	conditional dismissal
Oliver, F. and Company v. Rumford Chemical Works		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.W.D. Tenn.	reversed
Porter v. Lazear		Gray	none	none	Pa.	affirmed
Laver v. Dennett		Matthews	none	none	C.C.D. Cal.	affirmed
King v. Gallun		Woods	none	none	C.C.E.D. Wis.	affirmed
Hewitt v. Campbell		Harlan	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Green County v. Conness		Bradley	none	none	C.C.W.D. Mo.	affirmed
Haskins v. St. Louis and Southeastern Railway		Waite	none	none	C.C.M.D. Tenn.	dismissed
City of Opelika v. Daniel		Waite	none	none	C.C.M.D. Ala.	dismissed
The Tornado		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
Double Pointed Tack Company v. Two Rivers Manufacturing Company		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.E.D. Wis.	affirmed
Manhattan Life Insurance Company v. Broughton		Gray	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Newman v. Arthur		Matthews	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Arthur v. Pastor		Matthews	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
United States v. Fisher		Woods	none	none	Ct. Cl.	reversed
United States v. Mitchell		Woods	none	none	Ct. Cl.	reversed
Hovey v. McDonald		Bradley	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Louis v. Brown Township		Miller	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ohio	affirmed
Indiana Southern Railroad Company v. Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company		Waite	none	none	C.C.D. Ind.	affirmed
Guion v. Liverpool, London and Globe Insurance Company		Waite	none	none	C.C.D. Ind.	dismissed
Ex parte Pennsylvania		Waite	none	none	E.D. Pa.	prohibition denied
Hunt v. Oliver		Waite	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mich.	supersedeas granted
Evans v. Brown		Waite	none	none	C.C.E.D. Nev.	affirmed
Winthrop Iron Company v. Meeker		Waite	none	none	C.C.W.D. Mich.	dismissal denied
Retzer v. Wood		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
Snyder v. Marks		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
Cragin v. Lovell		Gray	none	none	C.C.D. La.	reversed
United States v. Gibbons		Matthews	none	none	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
Booth v. Tiernan		Matthews	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
New Orleans National Banking Association v. Adams and Company		Woods	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
Matthews v. Densmore		Miller	none	none	Mich.	reversed
City of New Orleans v. Louisville and Nashville Railroad		Waite	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Knox County v. United States ex rel. Harshman		Waite	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mo.	affirmed
Ex parte Mead		Waite	none	none	not indicated	mandamus denied
Alabama Gold Life Insurance Company v. Nichols		Waite	none	none	C.C.E.D. Tex.	dismissed
Lamar v. McCay		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
Arnson v. Murphy		Matthews	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
Louisville and Nashville Railroad v. Palmes		Matthews	none	none	Fla.	affirmed
United States ex rel. Wilson v. Walker		Woods	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Meath v. Levee Commissioners of Mississippi		Woods	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	affirmed
Monongahela National Bank v. Jacobus		Harlan	none	none	C.C.W.D. Pa.	affirmed
W. R. Grace and Company v. American Central Insurance Company		Harlan	none	none	C.C.E.D.N.Y.	reversed
Louisiana ex rel. Folsom v. City of New Orleans		Field	Bradley	Harlan	La.	affirmed
Walsh v. Preston		Miller	none	Harlan	C.C.W.D. Tex.	reversed
Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad Company v. Des Moines Valley Railroad Company		Waite	none	none	Iowa	affirmed
Keyes v. United States		Blatchford	none	none	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
Bernards Township v. Stebbins		Gray	none	none	C.C.D.N.J.	reversed
Warner v. Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company		Matthews	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
Flash v. Conn		Woods	none	none	C.C.N.D. Fla.	reversed
Terre Haute and Indiana Railway Company v. Struble		Harlan	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mo.	affirmed
Miller v. City of New York		Field	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Memphis Gas Light Co v. Shelby County		Miller	none	none	Tenn.	affirmed
Gilfillan v. Union Canal Company		Waite	none	none	Pa.	affirmed
J.A. Fay and Company v. Cordesman		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ohio	affirmed
Feibelman v. Packard		Matthews	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
Smith v. McNeal		Woods	none	none	C.C.W.D. Tenn.	reversed
Bailey v. United States		Harlan	none	none	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
Jackson v. Roby		Field	none	none	C.C.D. Colo.	affirmed
Cunningham v. Macon and Brunswick Railroad Company		Miller	none	Harlan	C.C.S.D. Ga.	affirmed
J. Leroux and Company v. Hudson		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mich.	reversed
Schott v. Hudson		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mich.	reversed
Randall v. Baltimore and O. Railroad Company		Gray	none	none	C.C.D.W. Va.	affirmed
Ellis v. Davis		Matthews	none	none	C.C.D. La.	affirmed
Townsend v. Little		Woods	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Utah	affirmed
United States v. Jones		Field	none	none	Wis.	affirmed
Thomas v. Brownville, Fort Kearney and Pacific Railroad Company		Miller	none	none	C.C.D. Neb.	reversed
Canada Southern Railway Company v. Gebhard		Waite	none	Harlan	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
Sullivan v. Iron Silver Mining Company		Gray	none	none	C.C.D. Colo.	reversed
Ex parte Crow Dog		Matthews	none	none	D. Terr. Dakota	habeas corpus granted
Young v. Duvall		Harlan	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Providence and New York Steamship Company v. Hill Manufacturing Company		Bradley	none	Field	Mass.	reversed
Robertson v. Pickrell		Field	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Sweeney v. United States		Waite	none	none	Ct. Cl.	affirmed
Cherokee County v. Wilson		Waite	none	none	C.C.D. Kan.	affirmed
Salamanca Township v. Wilson		Waite	none	none	C.C.D. Kan.	affirmed
Ex parte Boyer		Blatchford	none	none	N.D. Ill.	prohibition denied
Estey v. Burdett		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.D. Vt.	reversed
Clements v. Odorless Excavating Apparatus Company		Blatchford	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	reversed
Albright v. Emery		Blatchford	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Winchester and Partridge Manufacturing Company v. Funge		Blatchford	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Utah	reversed
Wyman v. Halstead		Gray	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	reversed
Bachman v. Lawson		Gray	none	none	N.Y. Super. Ct.	affirmed
Bendey v. Townsend		Gray	none	none	C.C.W.D. Mich.	reversed
Smith v. Greenhow		Matthews	none	none	C.C.E.D. Va.	reversed
Potomac Steamboat Company v. Upper Potomac Steamboat Company		Matthews	none	Miller	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Chicago and Alton Railroad Company v. Union Rolling Mill Company		Woods	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
Howard v. Carusi		Woods	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Sherman County v. Simons		Woods	none	none	C.C.D. Neb.	affirmed