List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 71

This is a list of cases reported in volume 71 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1866 and 1867.

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.

John William Wallace

Starting with the 66th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was John William Wallace. Wallace was Reporter of Decisions from 1863 to 1874, covering volumes 68 through 90 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 23 of his Wallace's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Thompson v. Bowie is 71 U.S. 463.
Wallace's Reports were the final nominative reports for the US Supreme Court; starting with volume 91, cases were identified simply as " U.S. ".

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 71 U.S. (4 Wall.)

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 71 U.S. were decided the following nine justices were members of the Court:

Portrait	Justice	Office	Home State	Succeeded	Date confirmed by the Senate	Tenure on Supreme Court
	Salmon P. Chase	Chief Justice	Ohio	Roger B. Taney		– May 7, 1873
	James Moore Wayne	Associate Justice	Georgia	William Johnson		– July 5, 1867
	Samuel Nelson	Associate Justice	New York	Smith Thompson		– November 28, 1872
	Robert Cooper Grier	Associate Justice	Pennsylvania	Henry Baldwin		– January 31, 1870
	Nathan Clifford	Associate Justice	Maine	Benjamin Robbins Curtis		– July 25, 1881
	Noah Haynes Swayne	Associate Justice	Ohio	John McLean		– January 24, 1881
	Samuel Freeman Miller	Associate Justice	Iowa	Peter Vivian Daniel		– October 13, 1890
	David Davis	Associate Justice	Illinois	John Archibald Campbell		– March 4, 1877
	Stephen Johnson Field	Associate Justice	California	newly created seat		– December 1, 1897

Notable Cases in 71 U.S. (4 Wall.)

''Ex parte Milligan''

Ex parte Milligan,, is a Supreme Court decision that ruled unconstitutional the application of military tribunals to citizens when civilian courts are still operating. The Court held that "martial rule can never exist when the courts are open", and confined martial law to areas of "military operations, where war really prevails" and when it was a necessity to provide a substitute for a civil authority that had been overthrown.

''Ex parte Garland''

Ex parte Garland,, is an important case involving the disbarment of former Confederate officials. The Supreme Court ruled that a statute prohibiting former Confederate government officials from serving in the US government was unconstitutional as being both a bill of attainder and an ex post facto law. The Court also held that lawyers are officers of the court, not officers of the United States, and that their removal must be an exercise of judicial power, not legislative power.

''Mississippi v. Johnson''

Mississippi v. Johnson,, was the first suit to be brought against a President of the United States in the United States Supreme Court. The state of Mississippi attempted to sue President Andrew Johnson for enforcing Reconstruction. The Court ruled in favor of the president.

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 71 U.S. (4 Wall.)

Case Name	Page and year	Opinion of the Court	Concurring opinion	Dissenting opinion	Lower Court	Disposition
Stearns v. United States		per curiam	none	none	not indicated	certiorari granted
Brobst v. Brobst		Chase	none	none	not indicated	remanded
Ex parte Milligan		Davis	Chase	none	C.C.D. Ind.	certification
McGee v. Mathis		Chase	none	none	Ark.	reversed
United States v. Hoffman		Miller	none	none	N.D. Cal.	prohibition denied
Walker v. United States		Chase	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	dismissed
Brown v. Wiley		Chase	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	dismissed
Locke v. City of New Orleans		Field	none	none	La.	affirmed
Sturdy v. Jackaway		Grier	none	none	C.C.E.D. Ark.	certification
Missouri and Mississippi Railroad Company v. Rock		Miller	none	none	Iowa	dismissed
United States v. Dashiel		Nelson	none	none	W.D. Tex.	reversed
United States v. Allsbury		Nelson	none	none	W.D. Tex.	affirmed
Leftwitch v. Lecanu		Miller	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
City of New York v. Sheffield		Miller	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
Christy v. Pridgeon		Field	none	none	E.D. Tex.	affirmed
Lanfear v. Hunley		Swayne	none	none	La.	affirmed
Witherspoon v. Duncan		Davis	none	none	Ark.	affirmed
Rutherford v. Geddes		Miller	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Evans v. Patterson		Grier	none	none	C.C.W.D. Pa.	affirmed
Hughes v. United States		Field	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Mitchell v. St. Maxent's Lessee		Davis	none	none	N.D. Fla.	affirmed
People ex rel. Duer v. City of New York		Nelson	none	Chase	N.Y.	affirmed
Graham v. United States		Field	none	none	D. Cal.	affirmed
Brown v. Bass		Nelson	none	none	C.C.S.D. Miss.	reversed
Mitchell v. Burlington and Mount Pleasant Plank Road Company		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. Iowa	reversed
Larned v. Burlington and Mount Pleasant Plank Road Company		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. Iowa	reversed
Cummings v. Missouri		Field	none	Miller	Mo.	reversed
Ex parte Garland		Field	none	Miller	original	confirmed to bar
Barrows v. Kindred		Swayne	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ill.	reversed
United States v. Hathaway		Nelson	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mich.	certification
United States v. Quimby		Nelson	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mich.	certification
Gilman v. Lockwood		Clifford	none	none	C.C.D. Wis.	reversed
The Moses Taylor		Field	none	none	San Francisco County Ct.	reversed
Semple v. Hagar		Grier	none	none	Cal.	dismissed
Rock Island County v. United States		Swayne	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
Davidson v. Lanier		Chase	none	none	N.D. Miss.	reversed
Bradley v. Illinois		Nelson	none	none	Ill.	reversed
Thompson v. Bowie		Davis	none	Grier	Sup. Ct. D.C.	reversed
Mississippi v. Johnson		Chase	none	none	original	dismissed
Saulet v. Shepherd		Grier	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Bentley v. Coyne		Clifford	none	none	C.C.E.D. Mich.	affirmed
Purcell v. Miner I		Grier	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	affirmed
Purcell v. Miner II		Grier	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	rehearing denied
Commissioner of Patents v. Whiteley		Swayne	none	none	Sup. Ct. D.C.	reversed
Von Hoffman v. City of Quincy		Swayne	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ill.	reversed
The Hine v. Trevor		Miller	none	none	Iowa	reversed
Newell v. Nixon		Clifford	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Sparrow v. Strong		Chase	none	none	Nev.	dismissed
Bell v. Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company		Davis	none	none	N.D. Miss.	affirmed
Ryan v. Thomas		Chase	none	none	Mo.	dismissed
Pearson v. Duane		Davis	none	none	C.C.D. Cal.	certification
Ware v. United States		Clifford	none	none	C.C.E.D. Pa.	affirmed
The Nassau		Davis	none	none	C.C.S.D.N.Y.	affirmed
United States v. Le Baron		Miller	none	none	C.C.S.D. Ala.	reversed
New Orleans Railroad Company v. Lindsay		Swayne	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed
Robbins v. City of Chicago		Clifford	none	none	C.C.N.D. Ill.	affirmed
United States v. McMasters		Nelson	none	none	C.C.E.D. La.	affirmed