List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 40

This is a list of cases reported in volume 40 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1841.

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.

Richard Peters, Jr.

Starting with the 26th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was Richard Peters, Jr. Peters was Reporter of Decisions from 1828 to 1843, covering volumes 26 through 41 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 16 of his Peters's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Levy v. Fitzpatrick is 40 U.S. 167.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 40 U.S. (15 Pet.)

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 40 U.S. were decided the Court comprised nine justices at the start of the 1841 term, but only eight when it adjourned in March 1841; Justice Philip P. Barbour had died in February 1841.

Portrait	Justice	Office	Home State	Succeeded	Date confirmed by the Senate	Tenure on Supreme Court
	Roger B. Taney	Chief Justice	Maryland	John Marshall		– October 12, 1864
	Joseph Story	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	William Cushing		– September 10, 1845
	Smith Thompson	Associate Justice	New York	Henry Brockholst Livingston		– December 18, 1843
	John McLean	Associate Justice	Ohio	Robert Trimble		– April 4, 1861
	Henry Baldwin	Associate Justice	Pennsylvania	Bushrod Washington		– April 21, 1844
	James Moore Wayne	Associate Justice	Georgia	William Johnson		– July 5, 1867
	Philip P. Barbour	Associate Justice	Virginia	Gabriel Duvall		– February 25, 1841
	John Catron	Associate Justice	Tennessee	newly created seat		– May 30, 1865
	John McKinley	Associate Justice	Alabama	newly created seat		– July 19, 1852

Notable Case in 40 U.S. (15 Pet.)

''The Schooner Amistad''

The Schooner Amistad, , resulted from the rebellion of kidnapped Africans on board the Spanish schooner La Amistad in 1839. It was an unusual freedom suit that involved international issues and parties as well as U.S. law. The lower courts ruled that the captives had acted as free men when they fought to escape their illegal confinement and were entitled to take whatever measures were necessary to secure their freedom, including the use of force. Under international and Southern sectional pressure, American President Martin Van Buren ordered the case appealed to the US Supreme Court, which affirmed the lower court ruling and authorized release of the captives.

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 40 U.S. (15 Pet.)

Case Name	Page & year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower court	Disposition
Vaughan v. Northup		Story	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
Gaines v. Relf		Thompson	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	certification
Coons' Lessee v. Gallaher		Taney	none	none	Ohio	dismissed
Mayburry v. Brien		McLean	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	affirmed
The North Carolina		Taney	none	none	Ct. App. Terr. Fla.	reversed
Colin Mitchel v. United States		Wayne	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	affirmed
Brush v. Ware		McLean	none	none	C.C.D. Ohio	affirmed
Gorman v. Lenox's Executors		McLean	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
Ex parte Crenshaw		Taney	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	decree nullified
Smith v. Clapp		McKinley	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	affirmed
United States v. Rodman		Wayne	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	affirmed
United States v. Dickson		Story	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	affirmed
Levy v. Fitzpatrick		McKinley	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	dismissed
United States v. Forbes' Heirs		Catron	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	reversed
United States v. Boyd		Catron	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	reversed
Amis v. Pearle		Story	none	none	not indicated	dismissed
Lea v. Kelly		Taney	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	dismissed
Buyck v. United States		Wayne	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	affirmed
United States v. Delespins's Heirs		Wayne	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	affirmed
Rhode Island v. Massachusetts		Taney	none	none	original	order to answer
O'Hara v. United States		Wayne	none	none	Fla. Super. Ct.	affirmed
Gwin v. Breedlove		Taney	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	decree nullified
Young v. Smith		Story	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	dismissed
United States v. Linn		Thompson	none	none	C.C.D. Ill.	certification
Gratiot v. United States		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Mo.	reversed
United States v. Bank of the Metropolis		Wayne	none	none	C.C.D.C.	affirmed
United States v. Fitzgerald		McKinley	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Minis v. United States		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Ga.	affirmed
Groves v. Slaughter		Thompson	McLean, Taney	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
The Schooner Amistad		Story	none	none	C.C.D. Conn.	multiple