Supreme Court of the United States Reporter of Decisions
Encyclopedia
The Reporter of Decisions
Reporter of decisions
The Reporter of Decisions is the official responsible for publishing the decisions of a court. Traditionally, the decisions were published in books known as case reporters or law reports...

 of the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

is the official charged with editing and publishing the Court's opinions both when announced and when they are published in permanent bound volumes of the United States Reports
United States Reports
The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the court in each case, prepended with a headnote prepared by the Reporter of Decisions, and any concurring or dissenting opinions are...

.
The Reporter of Decisions is responsible for only the contents of the United States Reports issued by the Government Printing Office, first in preliminary prints and later in the final bound volumes. The Reporter is not responsible for the editorial content of unofficial reports of the Court's decisions, such as the privately published Supreme Court Reporter or Lawyer's Edition.

The first two reporters acted in an unofficial capacity. Only in 1816, after the Supreme Court had existed for a quarter-century, did Congress create an official post of reporter. It then added a $1,000 a year salary in the Judiciary Act of 1817. The reporter also profited from selling the printed volumes of the reports of decisions. In 1874, Congress for the first time appropriated funds to publish the volumes of the court's opinions; from that time the report was known as the United States Reports and numbering began as if the first volume by the first reporter, Alexander J. Dallas
Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)
Alexander James Dallas was an American statesman who served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison....

, was number one. The Government Printing Office took over publication of the United States Reports in 1922.

The official title of this officer was changed from "Reporter" to "Reporter of Decisions" in 1953, to clarify the duties of the office at the request of Reporter Walter Wyatt
Walter Wyatt
Walter Wyatt was an American lawyer, who served as the twelfth Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.Born in Savannah, Georgia, Wyatt received his LL.B. from the University of Virginia in 1917...

 with the authorization of Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson
Fred M. Vinson
Frederick Moore Vinson served the United States in all three branches of government and was the most prominent member of the Vinson political family. In the legislative branch, he was an elected member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisa, Kentucky, for twelve years...

.

List of Reporters

The reporters of decisions are listed here with their tenures and the numbers of the volumes of the United States Reports they edited. Until volume 90, the volumes were also by the name of the reporter and the numbers of those nominative reports are listed after the U.S. Reports numbers. The post was vacant from 1944 to 1946.
  1. Alexander J. Dallas
    Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)
    Alexander James Dallas was an American statesman who served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison....

     (1790–1800): 1–4 (1–4 Dallas)
  2. William Cranch
    William Cranch
    William Cranch was an American judge and the second reporter of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.-Early life:Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, he was a nephew of Abigail Adams...

     (1801–1815): 5–13 (1–9 Cranch)
  3. Henry Wheaton (1816–1827): 14–25 (1–12 Wheat.)
  4. Richard Peters
    Richard Peters (Supreme Court)
    Richard Peters, Jr. was the fourth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1828 to 1843....

     (1828–1842): 26–41 (1–16 Peters)
  5. Benjamin Chew Howard
    Benjamin Chew Howard
    Benjamin Chew Howard was an American congressman and the fifth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1843 to 1861....

     (1843–1860): 42–65 (1–24 Howard)
  6. Jeremiah Sullivan Black (1861–1862): 66–67 (1–2 Black)
  7. John William Wallace
    John William Wallace
    John William Wallace was an American lawyer and the seventh reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1863 to 1874....

     (1863–1874): 68–90 (1–23 Wall.)
  8. William Tod Otto
    William Tod Otto
    William Tod Otto was an American judge and the eighth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving as reporter from 1875 to 1883.-Biography:...

     (1875–1883): 91–107
  9. John Chandler Bancroft Davis (1883–1902): 108–186
  10. Charles Henry Butler
    Charles Henry Butler
    Charles Henry Butler was an American lawyer and the tenth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1902 to 1916....

     (1902–1916): 187–241
  11. Ernest Knaebel
    Ernest Knaebel
    Ernest Knaebel was an American lawyer and the eleventh reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1916 to 1944....

     (1916–1944): 242–321
  12. Walter Wyatt
    Walter Wyatt
    Walter Wyatt was an American lawyer, who served as the twelfth Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.Born in Savannah, Georgia, Wyatt received his LL.B. from the University of Virginia in 1917...

     (1946–1963): 322–376
  13. Henry Putzel, Jr.
    Henry Putzel, Jr.
    Henry Putzel, Jr. was an American lawyer and the thirteenth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1964 to 1979....

     (1964–1979): 376–449
  14. Henry Curtis Lind
    Henry Curtis Lind
    Henry Curtis Lind was an American lawyer and the fourteenth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court from 1979 to 1989....

     (1979–1987): 440–479
  15. Frank D. Wagner
    Frank D. Wagner
    Frank Douglas Wagner was the 15th Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1987 to 2010.Born in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, Mr. Wagner received his A.B. from Cornell University in 1967 and his J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law in 1970...

     (1987–2010): 480–561
  16. Christine Luchok Fallon
    Christine Luchok Fallon
    Christine Luchok Fallon is the 16th Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Fallon began her service in 2011 and is the first woman to hold the position....

     (2011–): 562–

See also

  • Wheaton v. Peters
    Wheaton v. Peters
    Wheaton v. Peters, , was the first United States Supreme Court ruling on copyright. The case upheld the power of Congress to make a grant of copyright protection subject to conditions and rejected the doctrine of a common law copyright. This was also Chief Justice John Marshall's last major...

    , 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834)
  • United States Reports
    United States Reports
    The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the court in each case, prepended with a headnote prepared by the Reporter of Decisions, and any concurring or dissenting opinions are...

  • Complete list of United States Supreme Court cases
    Complete list of United States Supreme Court cases
    The following is a complete list of cases decided by the United States Supreme Court organized by volume of the United States Reports in which they appear. This is a list of volumes of U.S. Reports, and the links point to the contents of each individual volume.As of April 25, 2010, there are 553...


External links

  • History of the Federal Judiciary: Judicial Administration and Organization, Reporter of Decisions at the Federal Judicial Center
    Federal Judicial Center
    The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States....

    .
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