List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 21

This is a list of cases reported in volume 21 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1823.

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.

Henry Wheaton

Starting with the 14th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was Henry Wheaton. Wheaton was Reporter of Decisions from 1816 to 1827, covering volumes 14 through 25 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 12 of his Wheaton's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Sexton v. Wheaton is 21 U.S. 229.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.)

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 21 U.S. were decided, the Court comprised these seven justices:

Portrait	Justice	Office	Home State	Succeeded	Date confirmed by the Senate	Tenure on Supreme Court
	John Marshall	Chief Justice	Virginia	Oliver Ellsworth		– July 6, 1835
	Bushrod Washington	Associate Justice	Virginia	James Wilson		– November 26, 1829
	William Johnson	Associate Justice	South Carolina	Alfred Moore		– August 4, 1834
	Henry Brockholst Livingston	Associate Justice	New York	William Paterson		– March 18, 1823
	Thomas Todd	Associate Justice	Kentucky	new seat		– February 7, 1826
	Gabriel Duvall	Associate Justice	Maryland	Samuel Chase		– January 12, 1835
	Joseph Story	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	William Cushing		– September 10, 1845

Notable Case in 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.)

''Johnson's Lessee v. McIntosh''

Johnson's Lessee v. McIntosh,, is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court which held private citizens could not purchase lands from Native Americans. The litigation began when the successor in interest to a private purchase from the Piankeshaw attempted to maintain an action of ejectment against the holder of a federal land patent. The case is one of the most influential decisions of the Marshall Court. Marshall's opinion lays down the foundations of the doctrine of aboriginal title in the United States, and the related doctrine of discovery. What the opinion holds as to aboriginal title is that it is inalienable, a principle that remains well-established law in nearly all common law jurisdictions.

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 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.)

Case Name	Page and year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower court	Disposition
Green v. Biddle		Washington	Johnson	none	C.C.D. Ky.	certification
La Nereyda		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	reversed
Hunt v. Rousmanier's Administrators		Marshall	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	reversed
Goldsborough v. Orr		Story	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
Sexton v. Wheaton		Marshall	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
United States v. Wilson		per curiam	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	certification
Greeley v. United States		per curiam	none	none	C.C.D. Me.	certification
The Experiment		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	affirmed
Spring v. South Carolina Insurance Company		Livingston	none	none	C.C.D.S.C.	reversed
Hughes v. Union Insurance Company		Johnson	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	reversed
Buel v. Van Ness		Johnson	none	none	Vt.	reversed
Nicholls v. Webb		Story	none	none	D. La.	affirmed
Fleckner v. Second Bank of the United States		Story	none	none	D. La.	affirmed
Nicholas v. Anderson		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Ky.	affirmed
The Pitt		Johnson	none	none	C.C.D. Del.	affirmed
The Mary Ann Plumer		Marshall	none	none	D. La.	reversed
The Sarah Hazard		Marshall	none	none	D. La.	reversed
The Frances		Duvall	none	none	D. La.	reversed
The Luminary L'Amoureaux		Story	none	Johnson	D. La.	affirmed
Wallace v. Wormley		Story	Johnson	none	C.C.D. Va.	affirmed
United Society Partners in the Gospel v. Town of New-Haven		Washington	none	none	C.C.D. Vt.	certification
Daly's Lessee v. James		Washington	Johnson	none	C.C.D. Pa.	affirmed
Johnson's Lessee v. McIntosh		Marshall	none	none	D. Ill.	affirmed
Gracie v. Palmer		Johnson	none	none	C.C.E.D. Pa.	reversed
Childress v. Emory		Story	none	none	C.C.D.W. Tenn.	affirmed
Siglar v. Haywood		Marshall	none	none	C.C.D.E. Tenn.	reversed
City of Washington v. Francis		Johnson	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
Sneed v. Wister		Washington	none	none	C.C.D. Ky.	affirmed
Hugh v. Higgs		Marshall	none	none	C.C.D.C.	reversed
Gracie v. Palmer		Marshall	none	none	C.C.E.D. Pa.	dismissal denied