Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge One of the classic cases of the Taney Court, Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge helped settle the boundaries between vested rights based on charters and contr . . .
Cooley v. Board of Port Wardens of Philadelphia In this case the Court significantly shaped the doctrine of police powers as it affected interstate commerce. Unlike the fractured Court in The License . . .
Dred Scott v. Sandford Dred Scott was the second case in Supreme Court history in which all nine justices delivered an opinion. The case involved a suit for freedom by a slave named Dred Scott based . . .
Prigg v. Pennsylvania In 1837 Edward Prigg and three other men seized as fugitive slaves Margaret Morgan and her children, who were living in Pennsylvania. Prigg and the others brought the blacks bac . . .
Smith v. Turner; Norris v. City of Boston Also known as The Passenger Cases . . .
Swift v. Tyson In Swift v. Tyson Justice Story clarified the use of state precedents in commercial litigation in federal courts. Story's opinion was the governing rule until overturned by Erie Railro . . .
The Prize Cases These cases, involving four ships, brought the constitutionality of the Lincoln administration's prosecution of the Civil War before the Supreme Court. On April 19, 1861, immediately . . .
United States v. Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad Also known as The Amistad, 40 U.S. 518 (15 Pet. 518) (1841) . . .