List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 53

This is a list of cases reported in volume 53 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1851 and 1852.

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.

Benjamin Chew Howard

Starting with the 42nd volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was Benjamin Chew Howard. Howard was Reporter of Decisions from 1843 to 1860, covering volumes 42 through 65 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 24 of his Howard's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Bein v. Heath is 53 U.S. 168.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 53 U.S. (12 How.)

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 53 U.S. were decided the Court comprised these nine members:

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
	John McLean	Associate Justice	Ohio	Robert Trimble		– April 4, 1861
	James Moore Wayne	Associate Justice	Georgia	William Johnson		– July 5, 1867
	John Catron	Associate Justice	Tennessee	newly created seat		– May 30, 1865
	John McKinley	Associate Justice	Alabama	newly created seat		– July 19, 1852
	Peter Vivian Daniel	Associate Justice	Virginia	Philip P. Barbour		– May 31, 1860
	Samuel Nelson	Associate Justice	New York	Smith Thompson		– November 28, 1872
	Robert Cooper Grier	Associate Justice	Pennsylvania	Henry Baldwin		– January 31, 1870
	Benjamin Robbins Curtis	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	Levi Woodbury		– September 30, 1857

Notable case in 53 U.S. (12 How.)

''Cooley v. Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia ex rel. Society for the Relief of Distressed Pilots, their Widows & Children''

In Cooley v. Board of Wardens, , the Supreme Court held that a Pennsylvania law requiring all ships entering or leaving the Port of Philadelphia to hire a local river pilot did not violate the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The Court decided that the constitutional grant to Congress of power to regulate interstate commerce did not deprive the states of power to regulate maritime pilots; although Congress had legislated on the subject, its legislation showed an intention not to preempt the entire topic. The ruling, however, "empowered the slave states to interfere with interstate commerce to protect slavery."

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 53 U.S. (12 How.)

Case Name	Page and year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower court	Disposition of case
Miners' Bank v. Iowa		Daniel	none	none	Iowa	dismissed
Binns v. Lawrence		Daniel	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	certification
Smith v. Clark		Taney	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	dismissal denied
Thredgill v. Pintard		McLean	none	none	C.C.D. Ark.	affirmed
Parks v. Turner		Taney	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Montault v. United States		Taney	none	none	S.D. Ala.	affirmed
Farmers' Bank v. Groves		Nelson	none	none	C.C.D. Louisiana	affirmed
Lessieur v. Price		Catron	none	none	Mo.	affirmed
Harris v. Runnels		Wayne	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	reversed
United States v. Bromley		McLean	none	none	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	reversed
Neilson v. Lagow		Curtis	none	none	Ind.	reversed
Williams v. Oliver I		Nelson	none	none	Md.	dismissed
Williams v. Oliver II		Nelson	none	none	Md.	dismissed
Dorsey v. Packwood		Grier	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Russell v. Southard		Curtis	none	none	C.C.D. Ky.	reversed
Ives v. Merchants' Bank		Catron	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	affirmed
Grand Gulf et al. Co. v. Marshall		Taney	none	none	La.	dismissed
Bein v. Heath		Taney	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	reversed
Wilbur v. Almy		Curtis	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	reversed
Erwin v. Parham		Catron	none	Nelson	C.C.D. La.	reversed
United States v. Moore		Catron	none	none	E.D. La.	reversed
Lyman v. Bank of the U.S.		Nelson	none	none	C.C.D. Vt.	affirmed
United States v. Wilkinson		Taney	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	reversed
Bond v. Brown		Taney	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Dundas v. Hitchcock		Grier	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	reversed
Clark v. Barnwell		Nelson	none	none	C.C.D.S.C.	reversed
Teal v. Felton		Wayne	none	none	N.Y.	affirmed
Achison v. Huddleson		Curtis	none	none	Md.	reversed
Cooley v. Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia ex rel. Society for the Relief of Distressed Pilots, their Widows & Children		Curtis	Daniel	McLean	Pa.	affirmed
Union Bank v. Stafford		Grier	none	none	D. Tex.	reversed
Smyth v. Strader Pevine & Co.		per curiam	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	dismissed
New Orleans et al. Co. v. Stafford		Grier	none	none	D. Tex.	reversed
Rich v. Lambert		Nelson	none	Daniel	C.C.D.S.C.	reversed
United States v. Reid		Taney	none	none	C.C.E.D. Va.	certification
Bennett v. Butterworth		McLean	none	none	D. Tex.	affirmed
Sargeant v. State Bank		Daniel	none	none	C.C.D. Ind.	affirmed
Saltmarsh v. Tuthill		Taney	none	none	M.D. Ala.	motion reserved
Dinsman v. Wilkes		Taney	none	none	C.C.D.C.	reversed
Snead v. McCoull		Daniel	none	none	C.C.E.D. Va.	affirmed
Linton v. Stanton		Taney	none	none	La.	dismissed
United States v. Porche		Taney	none	none	E.D. La.	certification
United States v. Simon		Grier	none	none	D. La.	reversed
United States v. Leblanc		Taney	none	none	E.D. La.	reversed
United States v. Castant		Daniel	none	none	E.D. La.	reversed
The Propeller Genesee Chief		Taney	none	Daniel	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Fretz v. Bull		Wayne	none	Daniel	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Gaines v. Relf		Catron	none	Wayne	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed