Appellate Case Files of the Supreme Court of the US 1792-1831 now available on LLMC Digital and Google Books!

In response to member requests and thanks to Yale Law School Library’s donation of the microfilm compilation, LLMC, through its partnership with Google, is happy to announce the digitization of the Appellate Case Files of the Supreme Court of the US 1792-1831!  Not only has this collection been responsibly digitized, but law librarians spent months adding valuable citations to facilitate the accessibility of these significant documents as many are manuscript.

For those unfamiliar with this resource, below is the description taken from the National Archives Microfilm Publications Pamphlet Accompanying Microcopy No. 214 ‘Appellate Case Files of the Supreme Court of the United States 1792-1831:

“In this microfilm publication are reproduced the appellate case files of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1792-1831. These records consist chiefly of transcripts of record of the cases in lower

courts, comprising copies of the papers filed and of minute entries of the lower courts' actions in the cases. The case files also include documents associated with the transcripts of record, such as petitions for writs of error or certiorari to lower courts, writs of error or certiorari, amendments or supplements to the transcripts of record, exhibits, citations to appellees to appear before the Supreme Court, appeal bonds, and assignments of error. In addition, there are documents resulting from the proceedings before the Supreme Court, such as agreements of counsel, depositions ordered by the Court to be taken as additional evidence, motions, orders, decrees, judgments, mandates, and correspondence.

The appellate case files of the Court are of value for the study not only of constitutional and general legal history but of almost every aspect of American history. They relate to such matters as American colonial debts to British subjects, the ownership of land in the United States by British subjects, and the provisions of the treaty of peace of 1783 concerning these matters; the maintenance of American neutrality during foreign wars; the right of an American citizen to expatriate himself; the "quasi-war" with France during the John Adams administration; the embargo during the Jefferson administration; the power of the Supreme Court to determine the constitutionality of Federal and State laws; the legal effect of instructions by the President to his subordinates to perform acts not specifically authorized by Federal statutes; State laws impairing the obligation of contracts; corporation law; the doctrine of "implied powers" for the Federal Government; salvage, land claims; privateering and prize law; the question of the power of the Federal Government to punish criminals under the common law; bankruptcy; slavery and the slave trade; the extent of the admiralty jurisdiction of the Federal courts; and the power of the Federal Government to govern U. S. Territories and to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. The papers in the case files include documents bearing the signatures of such well-known figures as John Marshall (cases 29 and 80), Alexander Hamilton (cases 32 and 89), Albert Gallatin (case 186), Henry Clay (cases 231 and 605), and Daniel Webster (cases 1015, 1067, 1140, and 1612).”