List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 38

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This is a list of cases reported in volume 38 (13 Pet.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1839.

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 26th volume of U. S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was Richard Peters, Jr. Peters was Reporter of Decisions from 1828 to 1843, covering volumes 26 through 41 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 16 of his Peters's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Anthony v. Butler is 38 U. S. (13 Pet.) 423 (1839).

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 38 U. S. (13 Pet.) were decided, the Court comprised these nine justices:

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)

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 and year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower Court Disposition Woodward v. Brown 1 (1839) McLean none none C. C. D. C. affirmed Whiting v. Second Bank of the United States 6 (1839) Story none none C. C. D. Ky. affirmed van Ness v. Second Bank of the United States 17 (1839) Taney none none C. C. D. C. affirmed Rhode Island v. Massachusetts 23 (1839) Taney none none original motion denied Smith v. Richards 26 (1839) Barbour none Story C. C. S. D. N. Y. affirmed Ross v. Duval 45 (1839) McLean none none C. C. E. D. Va. reversed Andrews v. Pond 65 (1839) Taney none none C. C. S. D. Ala. reversed United States v. Levy 81 (1839) Wayne none none C. C. D. Ky. affirmed United States v. Drummond 84 (1839) Wayne none none Fla. Super Ct. reversed United States v. Burgevin 85 (1839) Wayne none none Fla. Super Ct. reversed United States v. Arredondo's Heirs I 88 (1839) Wayne none none Fla. Super Ct. affirmed Bradley v. The Washington, Alexandria and Georgetown Steam Packet Company 89 (1839) Barbour none Thompson; Catron; Story C. C. D. C. reversed Second Bank of the United States v. Lee 107 (1839) Catron none none C. C. D. C. affirmed Second Bank of the United States v. Peter 123 (1839) McLean none none C. C. D. C. reversed King v. Thompson 128 (1839) Catron none none C. C. D. C. multiple United States v. Arredondo's Heirs II 133 (1839) Wayne none none Fla. Super Ct. affirmed Wallace v. M'Connell 136 (1839) Thompson none none S. D. Ala. affirmed Reed's Lessee v. Marsh 153 (1839) Taney none none Ohio dismissed Ocean Insurance Company v. Polleys 157 (1839) Story none none Me. dismissed Walker v. Parker 166 (1839) McLean none none C. C. D. C. affirmed United States v. Hardyman 176 (1839) McLean none none C. C. E. D. Va. certification Stokes v. Saltonstall 181 (1839) Barbour none none C. C. D. Md. affirmed Clark v. Smith 195 (1839) Catron none none C. C. D. Ky. reversed Downes and Company v. Church 205 (1839) Story none none C. C. D. Miss. certification Stein v. Bowman 209 (1839) McLean none Baldwin E. D. La. reversed Ex parte Hennen 225 (1839) Taney none none C. C. D. La. mandamus denied Bend v. Hoyt 263 (1839) Story none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. certification Ex parte Hoyt 279 (1839) Story Baldwin none S. D. N. Y. mandamus denied Hardy v. Hoyt 292 (1839) Story none none C. C. S. D. N. Y. certification Van Ness v. Hyatt 294 (1839) Barbour none none C. C. D. C. affirmed Moore v. Bank of the Metropolis 302 (1839) Thompson none none C. C. D. C. affirmed M'Elmoyle ex rel. Bailey v. Cohen 312 (1839) Wayne none none C. C. D. Ga. certification Columbian Insurance Company v. Ashby 331 (1839) Story none none C. C. D. C. affirmed Moncure v. Dermott 345 (1839) McKinley none none C. C. D. C. reversed Story v. Livingston 359 (1839) Wayne none none E. D. La. affirmed Wilcox v. Hunt 378 (1839) McKinley none none E. D. La. affirmed Lupton v. Janney 381 (1839) Story none none C. C. D. C. affirmed The Brig Sarah Ann 387 (1839) Wayne none none C. C. D. Mass. affirmed Ex parte Whitney 404 (1839) Story none none E. D. La. mandamus denied Emerson's Heirs v. Hall 409 (1839) McLean none none La. reversed Williams v. Suffolk Insurance Company 415 (1839) McLean none none C. C. D. Mass. certification Anthony v. Butler 423 (1839) McLean none none C. C. D. R. I. affirmed Bagnell v. Broderick 436 (1839) Catron none McLean C. C. D. Mo. affirmed Keene v. Whittaker 459 (1839) Wayne none none E. D. La. dismissed Carr v. Hoxie 460 (1839) Story none none C. C. D. R. I. dismissed Burton v. Smith 464 (1839) Barbour none none C. C. E. D. Va. affirmed Meredith v. United States 486 (1839) Story none none C. C. D. Md. affirmed Wilcox v. Jackson 498 (1839) Barbour none none Ill. reversed Bank of Augusta v. Earle 519 (1839) Taney Baldwin McKinley C. C. S. D. Ala. reversed