List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 121

This is a list of cases reported in volume 121 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1887.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 121 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 121 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 Case in 121 U.S.

''Ex parte Bain''

In Ex parte Bain,, the Supreme Court held that when an indictment is filed with a federal court, no change can be made in the body of the instrument by order of the court or by the prosecuting attorney without resubmitting the case to the grand jury. Even though a court may deem a change immaterial, the instrument, as revised, is no longer the indictment of the grand jury which presented it. Bain was overruled in part by the Court in United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625.

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 121 U.S.

Case Name	Page and year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower Court	Disposition
Ex parte Bain		Miller	-	-	C.C.E.D. Va.	habeas corpus granted
Worden v. Searls		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.E.D. Mich.	reversed
Richmond v. Irons		Matthews	-	-	C.C.N.D. Ill.	reversed
Merchants' Insurance Company v. Allen		Waite	-	-	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
First National Bank v. Shedd		Waite	-	-	C.C.W.D. Pa.	affirmed
Carper v. Fitzgerald		Waite	-	-	C.C.E.D. Va.	dismissed
United States v. McDougall's Administrator		Harlan	-	-	Ct. Cl.	reversed
Royall v. Virginia		Waite	-	-	Va.	reversed
Grant v. Phoenix Life Insurance Company		Blatchford	-	-	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Town of Bloomfield v. Charter Oak National Bank		Gray	-	-	C.C.D. Conn.	reversed
Mercantile National Bank v. City of New York		Matthews	-	-	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
National Newark Banking Company v. City of Newark		Matthews	-	-	C.C.D.N.J.	affirmed
Town of Concord v. Robinson		Harlan	-	-	C.C.N.D. Ill.	reversed
Katzenberger v. City of Aberdeen		Waite	-	-	N.D. Miss.	affirmed
Laidly v. Huntington		Waite	-	-	D.W. Va.	reversed
Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway Company v. Dunn		Waite	-	-	Minn.	case advanced
Estes and Doan v. Gunter		Waite	-	-	N.D. Miss.	dismissed
Barron v. Burnside		Blatchford	-	-	Iowa	reversed
McConihay v. Wright		Matthews	-	-	D.W. Va.	affirmed
Francklyn v. A. & W. Sprague Manufacturing Company		Bradley	-	-	C.C.D.R.I.	affirmed
City of Fargo v. Stevens		Miller	-	-	Mich.	reversed
Covington Stockyards Company v. Keith		Waite	-	-	C.C.D. Ky.	stay denied
Penn v. Calhoun		Waite	-	-	C.C.S.D. Ill.	affirmed
Menard v. Goggan		Waite	-	-	C.C.E.D. Tex.	reversed
United States v. Phillips		Waite	-	-	C.C.W.D. Tex.	dismissed
Cleveland Rolling Mill Company v. Rhodes		Gray	-	-	C.C.N.D. Ill.	reversed
Hinckley v. Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Company		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
United States v. Le Bris		Waite	-	-	C.C.D. Minn.	certification
Parkinson v. United States		Waite	-	-	C.C.D. Nev.	reversed
Church v. Kelsey		Waite	-	-	Pa.	affirmed
Louisiana National Bank v. Whitney		Waite	-	-	C.C.E.D. La.	dismissed
Dugger v. Tayloe		Waite	-	-	Ala.	affirmed
Thatcher Heating Company v. Burtis		Matthews	-	-	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Minneapolis Agricultural and Mechanical Association v. Canfield		Matthews	-	-	C.C.D. Minn.	affirmed
Huiskamp Brothers v. Moline Wagon Company		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.W.D. Mo.	reversed
Maxwell Land-Grant Case		Miller	-	-	C.C.D. Colo.	affirmed
Fisher v. Kelsey		Harlan	-	-	C.C.E.D. Mo.	affirmed
Lehigh Water Company v. Borough of Easton		Harlan	-	-	Pa.	affirmed
Noonan v. Caledonia Gold Mining Company		Field	-	-	Sup. Ct. Terr. Dakota	affirmed
Winslow, Lanier and Company v. Nash		Waite	-	-	C.C.N.D. Ohio	affirmed
Laughlin v. Mitchell		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.S.D. Miss.	affirmed
Carson v. Dunham		Waite	-	-	C.C.D.S.C.	affirmed
Milwaukee and Northern Railway v. Brooks Locomotive Works		Matthews	-	-	C.C.E.D. Wis.	affirmed
Ouachita Packet Company v. Aiken and Company		Bradley	-	-	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Albany and Rensselaer Company v. Lundberg		Gray	-	-	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
Boynton v. Ball		Miller	-	-	Ill.	reversed
The John H. Pearson		Waite	-	-	C.C.D. Mass.	reversed
Carpenter v. Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company		Miller	-	-	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Bragg v. Fitch		Bradley	-	-	C.C.D. Conn.	reversed
McCoy v. Nelson		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.D. Colo.	reversed
Wright v. Roseberry		Field	-	-	Cal.	reversed
Robinson v. Anderson		Waite	-	-	C.C.D. Cal.	affirmed
Wilson's Executor v. Deen		Field	-	-	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
Stanley v. Albany County		Field	-	-	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Frost v. Spitley		Gray	-	-	C.C.D. Neb.	reversed
Metropolitan Railroad Company v. Moore		Matthews	-	-	Sup. Ct. D.C.	reversed
McGowan Pump Company v. American Pressed Tan Bark Company		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.S.D. Ohio	affirmed
Hartranft, Collector of Customs for the District of Philadelphia v. J.H. Wiegmann and Son		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.E.D. Pa.	affirmed
Hartranft, Collector of Customs for the District of Philadelphia v. Winters		Blatchford	-	-	C.C.E.D. Pa.	affirmed
Snow v. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company		Matthews	-	-	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Peninsular Iron Company v. Stone		Waite	-	-	C.C.S.D. Iowa	reversed
Lawrence v. Morgan's Railroad and Steamship Company		Waite	-	-	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
New Jersey Steamboat Company v. Brockett		Harlan	-	-	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	affirmed