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List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 275

Coordinates: 38°53′26″N 77°00′16″W / 38.89056°N 77.00444°W / 38.89056; -77.00444
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Supreme Court of the United States
Map
38°53′26″N 77°00′16″W / 38.89056°N 77.00444°W / 38.89056; -77.00444
EstablishedMarch 4, 1789; 235 years ago (1789-03-04)
LocationWashington, D.C.
Coordinates38°53′26″N 77°00′16″W / 38.89056°N 77.00444°W / 38.89056; -77.00444
Composition methodPresidential nomination with Senate confirmation
Authorised byConstitution of the United States, Art. III, § 1
Judge term lengthlife tenure, subject to impeachment and removal
Number of positions9 (by statute)
Websitesupremecourt.gov

This is a list of cases reported in volume 275 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1927 and 1928.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 275 U.S.

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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).[1] 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 volume 275 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
William Howard Taft Chief Justice Connecticut Edward Douglass White June 30, 1921
(Acclamation)
July 11, 1921

February 3, 1930
(Retired)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Associate Justice Massachusetts Horace Gray December 4, 1902
(Acclamation)
December 8, 1902

January 12, 1932
(Retired)
Willis Van Devanter Associate Justice Wyoming Edward Douglass White (as Associate Justice) December 15, 1910
(Acclamation)
January 3, 1911

June 2, 1937
(Retired)
James Clark McReynolds Associate Justice Tennessee Horace Harmon Lurton August 29, 1914
(44–6)
October 12, 1914

January 31, 1941
(Retired)
Louis Brandeis Associate Justice Massachusetts Joseph Rucker Lamar June 1, 1916
(47–22)
June 5, 1916

February 13, 1939
(Retired)
George Sutherland Associate Justice Utah John Hessin Clarke September 5, 1922
(Acclamation)
October 2, 1922

January 17, 1938
(Retired)
Pierce Butler Associate Justice Minnesota William R. Day December 21, 1922
(61–8)
January 2, 1923

November 16, 1939
(Died)
Edward Terry Sanford Associate Justice Tennessee Mahlon Pitney January 29, 1923
(Acclamation)
February 19, 1923

March 8, 1930
(Died)
Harlan F. Stone Associate Justice New York Joseph McKenna February 5, 1925
(71–6)
March 2, 1925

July 2, 1941
(Continued as chief justice)

Notable Case in 275 U.S.

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An 1886 advertisement for "Magic Washer" detergent: The Chinese Must Go

Lum v. Rice

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In Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927), the Supreme Court upheld blatant de jure discrimination against Asian-Americans, holding that the exclusion on account of race of a child of Chinese ancestry from a public school did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[2] The decision effectively approved the exclusion of any minority children from schools reserved for whites.[3] Earl Brewer, a former governor of Mississippi, represented the Lums, arguing that forcing their girls to attend the inferior school for non-white children violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights, and that since they were not Black they should be allowed to attend the schools for whites. He was able to win the writ of mandamus they sought, but then the school district appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court which unanimously reversed the lower court, holding that Mississippi's constitution and laws clearly distinguished Asians ("Mongolians", it called them) from whites, so the Lums could not attend white schools. On review in the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice William Howard Taft's unanimous opinion ended with a pronouncement that all racial segregation in schools was constitutional. While it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education a quarter-century later, it gave greater legal foundation to educational segregation in the short term and set back efforts to end it. It is remembered today for increasing the scope of permissible segregation. Historian and educator James Loewen called Lum "the most racist Supreme Court decision in the twentieth century".[2] Legal scholar Jamal Greene has called it an "ugly and unfortunate" decision. "The Court's ruling had established a precedent more powerful than the Lum family could have imagined", observed Adrienne Berard, in Water Tossing Boulders, a history of the case. "By fighting, they had only made the enemy stronger."[2]

Citation style

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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.

The Judiciary Act of 1891 created the United States Courts of Appeals and reassigned the jurisdiction of most routine appeals from the district and circuit courts to these appellate courts. The Act created nine new courts that were originally known as the "United States Circuit Courts of Appeals." The new courts had jurisdiction over most appeals of lower court decisions. The Supreme Court could review either legal issues that a court of appeals certified or decisions of court of appeals by writ of certiorari. On January 1, 1912, the effective date of the Judicial Code of 1911, the old Circuit Courts were abolished, with their remaining trial court jurisdiction transferred to the U.S. District Courts.

Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions.

List of cases in volume 275 U.S.

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Case Name Page and year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower Court Disposition
United States ex rel. Skinner and Eddy Corporation v. McCarl 1 (1927) Brandeis none none D.C. Cir. affirmed
Mammoth Oil Company v. United States 13 (1927) Butler none none 8th Cir. affirmed
Smallwood v. Gallardo 56 (1927) Holmes none none 1st Cir. reversed
Gallardo v. Santini Fertilizer Company 62 (1927) Holmes none none D.P.R. reversed
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. Southwell 64 (1927) Holmes none none N.C. reversed
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company v. Goodman 66 (1927) Holmes none none 6th Cir. reversed
Fairmont Creamery Company v. Minnesota 70 (1927) Taft none none original taxing costs denied
Lum v. Rice 78 (1927) Taft none none Miss. affirmed
Compañía General de Tabacos v. Collector 87 (1927) Taft none Holmes Phil. multiple
Wickwire v. Reinecke 101 (1927) Taft none none 7th Cir. reversed
Segurola v. United States 106 (1927) Taft none none 1st Cir. affirmed
Simmons v. Swan 113 (1927) Holmes none none 1st Cir. reversed
Mercantile Trust Company v. Wilmot Road District 117 (1927) Holmes none none 8th Cir. reversed
Leach and Company v. Peirson 120 (1927) Holmes none none 3d Cir. reversed
Millsaps College v. City of Jackson 129 (1927) McReynolds none none Miss. affirmed
Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Moser 133 (1927) McReynolds none none Tex. Civ. App. reversed
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Wisconsin 136 (1927) McReynolds none none Wis. reversed
Blodgett v. Holden 142 (1927) McReynolds Holmes none 6th Cir. certification
United States v. Berkeness 149 (1927) McReynolds none none 9th Cir. affirmed
St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Company v. Spiller 156 (1927) Brandeis none none original amendment denied
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company v. Wells Dickey Trust Company 161 (1927) Brandeis none none Minn. reversed
City of Hammond v. Schappi Bus Line, Inc. 164 (1927) Brandeis none none 7th Cir. decree modified
City of Hammond v. Farina Bus Line Transportation Company 173 (1927) Brandeis none none 7th Cir. decree modified
Mason v. Routzahn 175 (1927) Brandeis none none 6th Cir. reversed
News Syndicate Company v. New York Central Railroad Company 179 (1927) Butler none none 7th Cir. certification
Atwater and Company v. United States 188 (1927) Butler none none Ct. Cl. affirmed
Marron v. United States 192 (1927) Butler none none 9th Cir. affirmed
Steele v. Drummond 199 (1927) Butler none none 5th Cir. affirmed
Washington ex rel. Stimson Lumber Company v. Kuykendall 207 (1927) Butler none none Wash. affirmed
Mellon v. O'Neil 212 (1927) Sanford none none N.Y. Sup. Ct. dismissed
Willcuts v. Milton Dairy Company 215 (1927) Sanford none none 8th Cir. reversed
Blair v. Oesterlein Machine Company 220 (1927) Stone none none D.C. Cir. affirmed
Tucker v. Alexander 228 (1927) Stone none none 8th Cir. reversed
Heiner v. Colonial Trust Company 232 (1927) Stone none none 3d Cir. reversed
Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Ellzey 236 (1927) Stone none none 5th Cir. reversed
Lewellyn v. Electricity Reduction Company 243 (1927) Stone none none 3d Cir. reversed
Equitable Trust Company v. Rochling 248 (1927) Stone none none 2d Cir. reversed
Latzko v. Equitable Trust Company 254 (1927) Stone none none 2d Cir. reversed
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. Standard Oil Company 257 (1927) Taft none none 6th Cir. multiple
Bothwell v. Buckbee Mears Company 274 (1927) Brandeis none none Minn. affirmed
New Mexico v. Texas 279 (1927) Sanford none none original boundary set
Robins Dry Dock Repair Company v. Flint 303 (1927) Holmes none none 2d Cir. reversed
Gambino v. United States 310 (1927) Brandeis none none 2d Cir. reversed
Temco Electric Motor Company v. Apco Manufacturing Company 319 (1928) Taft none none 5th Cir. reversed
Richmond Screw Anchor Company v. United States 331 (1928) Taft none none Ct. Cl. reversed
United States v. Murray 347 (1928) Taft none none 5th Cir. multiple
Equitable Trust Company v. First National Bank 359 (1928) Holmes none Stone 2d Cir. reversed
Barber Asphalt Paving Company v. Standard Asphalt and Rubber Company 372 (1928) VanDevanter none none 7th Cir. reversed
The Steel Trader 388 (1928) McReynolds none none 5th Cir. reversed
Hopkins v. Southern California Telephone Company 393 (1928) McReynolds none none 9th Cir. affirmed
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company v. United States 404 (1928) Brandeis none none N.D. Ill. affirmed
Emergency Fleet Corporation v. Western Union Telegraph Company 415 (1928) Brandeis none none D.C. Cir. reversed
Missouri Pacific Railroad Company v. Aeby 426 (1928) Butler none none Mo. reversed
N. and G. Taylor Company, Inc. v. Anderson 431 (1928) Butler none none 7th Cir. affirmed
Aetna Life Insurance Co. v. Hyde 440 (1928) Butler none none Mo. dismissed
Roche v. McDonald 449 (1928) Sanford none none Wash. reversed
Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company v. Wells 455 (1928) Sanford none none Miss. reversed
Mellon v. Arkansas Land and Lumber Company 460 (1928) Sanford none none Ark. reversed
Jackson v. Steamship Archimedes 463 (1928) Sanford none none 2d Cir. affirmed
Ingram Day Lumber Company v. McLouth 471 (1928) Stone none none 6th Cir. reversed
Nagle v. Loi Hoa 475 (1928) Stone none none 9th Cir. reversed
E.W. Bliss Company v. United States 509 (1927) per curiam none none Ct. Cl. reversed

Notes and references

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  1. ^ "Supreme Court Research Guide". Georgetown Law Library. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Berard, Adrienne (2016). Water Tossing Boulders: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 9780807033531. OCLC 939994405. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  3. ^ "BROWN V. BOARD: Timeline of School Integration in the U.S." Learning for Justice. April 1, 2004. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
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