List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 90

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This is a list of cases reported in volume 90 (23 Wall.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1874 and 1875.

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").

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, Fashnacht v. Frank is 90 U. S. (23 Wall.) 416 (1875). Wallace's Reports were the final nominative reports for the US Supreme Court; starting with volume 91, cases were identified simply as "(volume #) U. S. (page #) (year)".

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). 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 90 U. S. (23 Wall.) were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:

Portrait Justice Office Home State Succeeded Date confirmed by the Senate(Vote) Tenure on Supreme Court Morrison Waite Chief Justice Ohio Salmon P. Chase January 21, 1874(63–0) March 4, 1874–March 23, 1888(Died) Nathan Clifford Associate Justice Maine Benjamin Robbins Curtis January 12, 1858(26–23) January 21, 1858–July 25, 1881(Died) Noah Haynes Swayne Associate Justice Ohio John McLean January 24, 1862(38–1) January 27, 1862–January 24, 1881(Retired) Samuel Freeman Miller Associate Justice Iowa Peter Vivian Daniel July 16, 1862(Acclamation) July 21, 1862–October 13, 1890(Died) David Davis Associate Justice Illinois John Archibald Campbell December 8, 1862(Acclamation) December 10, 1862–March 4, 1877(Resigned) Stephen Johnson Field Associate Justice California newly created seat March 10, 1863(Acclamation)May 10, 1863–December 1, 1897(Retired) William Strong Associate Justice Pennsylvania Robert Cooper Grier February 18, 1870(No vote recorded) March 14, 1870–December 14, 1880(Retired) Joseph P. Bradley Associate Justice New Jersey newly created seat March 21, 1870(46–9) March 23, 1870–January 22, 1892(Died) Ward Hunt Associate Justice New York Samuel Nelson December 11, 1872(Acclamation) January 9, 1873–January 27, 1882(Retired)

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

Case Name Page & year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower court Disposition The Clarita 1 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. affirmed (both cases) The Great Republic 20 (1874) Davis none none C. C. D. La. reversed United States v. Villalonga 35 (1874) Strong none none Ct. Cl. reversed St. Clair County v. Lovingston 46 (1874) Swayne none none Ill. affirmed The Dexter 69 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. D. Md. affirmed The Teutonia 77 (1874) Clifford none none C. C. D. La. reversed Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Young's Administrator 85 (1875) Swayne none none C. C. D. Cal. reversed Secombe v. Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company 108 (1874) Davis none none C. C. D. Minn. affirmed Lewis v. Hawkins 119 (1875) Swayne none none C. C. W. D. Ark. reversed Ray v. Norseworthy 128 (1875) Clifford none none La. affirmed Randall v. Kreiger 137 (1875) Swayne none none C. C. D. Minn. affirmed Stickney v. Wilt 150 (1874) Clifford none none C. C. N. D. Ohio reversed The Sea Gull 165 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. D. Md. reversed Corn Planter Patent 181 (1874) Bradley none Clifford C. C. N. D. Ill. reversed Arthur v. Richards 246 (1875) Bradley none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. reversed Mason v. Graham 261 (1875) Strong none none C. C. D. Mass. reversed Ambler v. Whipple 278 (1875) Miller none none Sup. Ct. D. C. rehearing denied Thomas and Company v. Wooldridge 283 (1875) Waite none none C. C. S. D. Miss. dismissed Sandusky v. First National Bank 289 (1875) Waite none none C. C. S. D. Ill. dismissed Gregory v. McVeigh 294 (1875) Waite none none Alexandria Corp. Ct. dismissal denied Blake v. National Banks 307 (1875) Hunt none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. reversed Slack v. Tucker and Company 321 (1875) Bradley none Field C. C. D. Mass. reversed Scholey v. Rew 331 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. N. D. N. Y. affirmed Reedy v. Scott 352 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. S. D. Ohio affirmed Smith v. Adsit 368 (1875) Strong none none Ill. dismissed Smythe v. Fiske 374 (1874) Swayne none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. reversed Donovan v. United States 383 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. E. D. Mo. affirmed North Carolina Railroad Company v. Swasey 405 (1875) Waite none none C. C. E. D. N. C. dismissed United States v. Williamson 411 (1875) Hunt none none Ct. Cl. affirmed Fashnacht v. Frank 416 (1875) Waite none none La. dismissed Crosby v. Buchanan 420 (1875) Waite none none C. C. W. D. Va. reversed The Rio Grande 458 (1875) Hunt none none C. C. D. La. affirmed Lewis v. Cocks 466 (1874) Swayne none none C. C. D. La. reversed Grand Tower Company v. Phillips 471 (1874) Bradley none none C. C. S. D. Ill. reversed Hepburn v. School Directors 480 (1875) Waite none none Pa. affirmed Green v. Green 486 (1874) Hunt none none Sup. Ct. D. C. affirmed Moran v. Prather 492 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. D. La. affirmed Ex parte Medway 504 (1875) Waite none none Ct. Cl. mandamus denied Chicago and Alton Railroad Company v. Wiswall 507 (1875) Waite none none C. C. S. D. Ill. dismissed United States v. Shrewsbury 508 (1874) Swayne none none Ct. Cl. reversed Tremolo Patent 518 (1875) Strong none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. affirmed Union Paper Collar Company v. Van Dusen 530 (1875) Clifford none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. affirmed Wood Paper Patent 566 (1874) Strong none none C. C. E. D. N. Y. affirmed