Supreme Court of the United States
38°53′26″N 77°00′16″W / 38.89056°N 77.00444°W / 38.89056; -77.00444
Established	March 4, 1789 (1789-03-04)
Location	Washington, D.C.
Coordinates	38°53′26″N 77°00′16″W / 38.89056°N 77.00444°W / 38.89056; -77.00444
Composition method	Presidential nomination with Senate confirmation
Authorized by	Constitution of the United States, Art. III, § 1
Judge term length	life tenure, subject to impeachment and removal
Number of positions	9 (by statute)
Website	supremecourt.gov

This article is part of a series on the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Court
History Procedures Nomination and confirmation Judiciary Committee review Demographics Ideological leanings of justices Lists of decisions Supreme Court building
Current membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate justices Clarence Thomas Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan Neil Gorsuch Brett Kavanaugh Amy Coney Barrett Ketanji Brown Jackson Retired justices Anthony Kennedy David Souter Stephen Breyer
Lists of justices
List of all justices by court by time in office by seat by education List of chief justices List of associate justices Specialty lists All nominations Unsuccessful nominations Confirmation votes Justices who served in Congress Burial places of justices
Court functionaries
Clerks Reporter of Decisions Marshal of the Court Supreme Court Police
Other countries Law Portal

Constitutional law of the United States
Overview
Articles Amendments History Judicial review
Principles
Separation of powers Individual rights Rule of law Federalism Republicanism Equal footing Strict scrutiny
Government structure
Legislative branch Executive branch Judicial branch State government Local government
Individual rights
Freedom of religion Freedom of speech Freedom of the press Freedom of assembly Right to petition Freedom of association Right to keep and bear arms Right to trial by jury Criminal procedural rights Right to privacy Freedom from slavery Due process Equal protection Citizenship Voting rights Comprehensible rules
Theory
Living Constitution Originalism Substantive due process Political process theory Purposivism Textualism Strict constructionism Common good constitutionalism

This is a list of cases reported in volume 37 (12 Pet.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1838.^[1]

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 (these are called "nominative reports").

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 37 U.S. (12 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 (one chief justice and five associate justices).^[2] Since 1789 Congress has varied the size of the Court from six to seven, nine, ten, and back to nine justices (always including one chief justice).

When the cases in 37 U.S. (12 Pet.) were decided, the Court for the first time comprised nine justices, its membership having been expanded under the Eighth and Ninth Circuits Act of 1837; they were:

Portrait	Justice	Office	Home State	Succeeded	Date confirmed by the Senate (Vote)	Tenure on Supreme Court
	Roger B. Taney	Chief Justice	Maryland	John Marshall	March 15, 1836 (29–15)	March 28, 1836 – October 12, 1864 (Died)
	Joseph Story	Associate Justice	Massachusetts	William Cushing	November 18, 1811 (Acclamation)	February 3, 1812 – September 10, 1845 (Died)
	Smith Thompson	Associate Justice	New York	Henry Brockholst Livingston	December 9, 1823 (Acclamation)	September 1, 1823 – December 18, 1843 (Died)
	John McLean	Associate Justice	Ohio	Robert Trimble	March 7, 1829 (Acclamation)	January 11, 1830 – April 4, 1861 (Died)
	Henry Baldwin	Associate Justice	Pennsylvania	Bushrod Washington	January 6, 1830 (41–2)	January 18, 1830 – April 21, 1844 (Died)
	James Moore Wayne	Associate Justice	Georgia	William Johnson	January 9, 1835 (Acclamation)	January 14, 1835 – July 5, 1867 (Died)
	Philip P. Barbour	Associate Justice	Virginia	Gabriel Duvall	March 15, 1836 (30–11)	May 12, 1836 – February 25, 1841 (Died)
	John Catron	Associate Justice	Tennessee	newly-created seat	March 8, 1837 (28–15)	May 1, 1837 – May 30, 1865 (Died)
	John McKinley	Associate Justice	Alabama	newly-created seat	September 25, 1837 (Acclamation)	January 9, 1838 – July 19, 1852 (Died)

Notable Case in 37 U.S. (12 Pet.)

Daniel Webster

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 (from the US District Courts) 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 (i.e., in which cases could be filed directly with the Supreme Court without first having been heard by a lower federal or state court). 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 37 U.S. (12 Pet.)

Notes and references

See also

• Certificate of division

External links

• Case reports in volume 37 (12 Pet.) from Library of Congress
• Case reports in volume 37 (12 Pet.) from Court Listener
• Case reports in volume 37 (12 Pet.) from the Caselaw Access Project of Harvard Law School
• Case reports in volume 37 (12 Pet.) from Google Scholar
• Case reports in volume 37 (12 Pet.) from Justia
• Case reports in volume 37 (12 Pet.) from Open Jurist
• Website of the United States Supreme Court
• United States Courts website about the Supreme Court
• National Archives, Records of the Supreme Court of the United States
• American Bar Association, How Does the Supreme Court Work?
• The Supreme Court Historical Society