List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 60

This is a list of cases reported in volume 60 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1856 and 1857.

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, Lathrop v. Judson is 60 U.S. 66.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 60 U.S. (19 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 60 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
	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
	John Archibald Campbell	Associate Justice	Alabama	John McKinley		– April 30, 1861

Notable Case in 60 U.S. (19 How.)

''Scott v. Sanford''

Scott v. Sandford, , is the most notorious and condemned decision in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court. In it, the Court held that the US Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for black people, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free, and so the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to them. Although Chief Justice Roger Taney and several of the other justices hoped that the decision would permanently settle the slavery controversy, which was increasingly dividing the American public, the decision's effect was the opposite. Taney's majority opinion suited the slaveholding states, but was intensely decried in the other states. The decision inflamed the national debate over slavery and deepened the divide that led ultimately to the Civil War. In 1865, after the Union won the Civil War, the Dred Scott ruling was voided by the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship for "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof". The Supreme Court's decision has been continuously denounced ever since, both for its overt racism and its role in the near destruction of the United States four years later. Bernard Schwartz said that it "stands first in any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions—Chief Justice Hughes called it the Court's greatest self-inflicted wound." Junius P. Rodriguez wrote that it is "universally condemned as the U.S. Supreme Court's worst decision". Historian David Thomas Konig agrees that it was "unquestionably, our court's worst decision ever."

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 60 U.S. (19 How.)

Case Name	Page and year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower court	Disposition
Prevost v. Greneaux		Taney	none	none	La.	affirmed
Morgan v. Curtenius		Taney	none	none	C.C.D. Ill.	continued
Ex parte Secombe		Taney	none	none	Sup. Ct. Terr. Minn.	mandamus denied
Shaffer v. Scudday		Taney	none	none	La.	dismissed
Thomas v. Osborn		Curtis	none	Taney	C.C.D. Md.	remand to dismiss
Ure v. Coffman		Wayne	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Stevens v. Gladding		McLean	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	affirmed
Lathrop v. Judson		McLean	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Moore v. Greene		McLean	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	affirmed
Betts v. Lewis		Curtis	none	none	N.D. Ala.	remand for amendment
United States v. Le Baron		Curtis	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	reversed
Willot v. Sandford		Catron	none	none	C.C.D. Mo.	reversed
Vandewater v. Mills		Grier	none	none	C.C.D. Cal.	affirmed
The Brig Neurea		Grier	none	none	N.D. Cal.	reversed
Seymour v. McCormick		Nelson	none	none	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	affirmed
The Steamer St. Charles		Nelson	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	reversed
Coiron v. Millaudon		Nelson	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Long v. O'Fallon		Campbell	none	none	C.C.D. Mo.	affirmed
Baker v. Nachtrieb		Campbell	none	none	C.C.W.D. Pa.	reversed
Meegan v. Boyle		McLean	none	none	C.C.D. Mo.	affirmed
Post v. Jones		Grier	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	reversed
E.I. DuPont de Nemours Company v. Vance		Curtis	none	Campbell	C.C.E.D. La.	reversed
The Steamer Virginia		Taney	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	dismissed
Brown v. Duchesne		Taney	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	affirmed
Mordecai v. Lindsay		Wayne	none	none	C.C.D.S.C.	reversed
Cousin v. Labatut		Catron	none	none	La.	reversed
Hartshorn v. Day		Nelson	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	reversed
Slater v. Emerson		McLean	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	reversed
Schuchardt v. Babbidge		Nelson	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
New York and Virginia Steamship Company v. Calderwood		Campbell	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Williams v. Hill McLane and Company		Campbell	none	none	M.D. Ala.	affirmed
Bell v. Hearne		Campbell	none	none	La.	reversed
Richardson v. City of Boston		Grier	none	none	C.C.D.R.I.	reversed
Hipp v. Babin		Campbell	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Wolfe v. Lewis		McLean	none	none	N.D. Ala.	reversed
Beebe v. Russell		Wayne	none	none	C.C.D. Ark.	dismissed
Farrelly v. Woodfolk		Wayne	none	none	C.C.E.D. Ark.	dismissed
Babcock v. Wyman		McLean	none	Catron, Campbell	C.C.D. Mass.	affirmed
Byers v. Surget		Daniel	none	none	C.C.E.D. Ark.	affirmed
Garrison v. Memphis Insurance Company		Campbell	none	none	C.C.D. Mo.	affirmed
Commercial Mutual Marine Insurance Company v. Union Mutual Insurance Company of New York		Curtis	none	none	C.C.D. Mass.	affirmed
Field v. Seabury I		Wayne	none	none	C.C.D. Cal.	reversed
Field v. Seabury II		Wayne	none	none	C.C.D. Cal.	reversed
Bryan v. Forsyth		Catron	none	McLean	C.C.N.D. Ill.	reversed
Ballance v. Papin		Catron	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	reversed
United States v. Peralta		Grier	none	none	S.D. Cal.	affirmed
McCullough v. Roots		Campbell	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	affirmed
Walton v. Cotton		McLean	none	Curtis	Tenn.	reversed
Pratt v. Reed		Nelson	none	none	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	reversed
The Steam Boat Sultana		Nelson	none	none	C.C.N.D.N.Y.	affirmed
United States v. Sutherland		Grier	none	none	S.D. Cal.	affirmed
Fellows v. Blacksmith		Nelson	none	none	N.Y. Sup. Ct.	affirmed
Roberts v. Cooper		Wayne	none	none	C.C.D. Mich.	bond increase denied
McRea v. Bank of Alabama		Curtis	none	none	C.C.E.D. Ark.	affirmed
Michigan Central Railroad Company v. Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company		Grier	none	none	Mich.	dismissed
Ballard v. Thomas		Nelson	none	none	C.C.D. Md.	affirmed
Platt v. Jerome		Nelson	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	appeal denied
United States v. City Bank of Columbus		Daniel	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ohio	certification
Burke v. Gaines		Taney	none	none	Ark.	dismissed
Bulkley v. Honold		Curtis	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Scott v. Sandford		Taney	Wayne, Catron, Daniel, Grier, Campbell	Curtis, McLean	C.C.D. Mo.	reversed