List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 85


This is a list of cases reported in volume 85 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1873 and 1874.

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, Atkins v. Disintegrating Co. is 85 U.S. 272.
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 85 U.S. (18 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 85 U.S. were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:
PortraitJusticeOfficeHome StateSucceededDate confirmed by the Senate
Tenure on Supreme Court
Morrison WaiteChief JusticeOhioSalmon P. Chase

–
March 23, 1888
Nathan CliffordAssociate JusticeMaineBenjamin Robbins Curtis

–
July 25, 1881
Noah Haynes SwayneAssociate JusticeOhioJohn McLean

–
January 24, 1881
Samuel Freeman MillerAssociate JusticeIowaPeter Vivian Daniel

–
October 13, 1890
David DavisAssociate JusticeIllinoisJohn Archibald Campbell

–
March 4, 1877
Stephen Johnson FieldAssociate JusticeCalifornianewly created seat

–
December 1, 1897
William StrongAssociate JusticePennsylvaniaRobert Cooper Grier

–
December 14, 1880
Joseph P. BradleyAssociate JusticeNew Jerseynewly created seat

–
January 22, 1892
Ward HuntAssociate JusticeNew YorkSamuel Nelson

–
January 27, 1882

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.