Reporters, Supreme Court

Reporters, Supreme Court The first reporter of decisions was an unappointed Pennsylvanian who took commercial advantage of the Supreme Court's move to his state in 1791. Reporters now hold a statutory office whose occupants have consistently been public officials of high distinction.

Alexander Dallas, a journalist, editor, and future secretary of the treasury, had already begun the business of publishing Pennsylvania opinions for private sale when the Supreme Court moved from New York City to Philadelphia. His first volume, entitled “1 Dallas” in the tradition of English nominative reports, has become volume 1 of the United States Reports, yet contains only Pennsylvania state opinions. His second volume included some decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and Dallas continued, sometimes belatedly, to publish the Court's decisions through 1800. The Court moved to Washington, D.C., that year, and William Cranch assumed the reporter's job. For fifty‐four years a judge in the District of Columbia, Cranch reported the Court's decisions until 1815. Cranch's judicial duties strained his time, however, and his reports were increasingly tardy toward the end of his tenure.

Congress formally recognized the reporter's office by statute in 1816, and for the first time the reporter was modestly remunerated after the Judiciary Act of 1817. Henry Wheaton, the first reporter appointed by the Court, was a close friend of Justice Joseph Story, and in part with Story's assistance promptly published accurate, annotated decisions. His verbose volumes, however, also included “long, baroque disquisitions on arcane branches of law.” After Wheaton's appointment as minister to Denmark in 1827, his successor, Richard Peters, produced more concise and less expensive reports, even publishing cases that had been in Wheaton's volumes. This action by Peters threatened the market for Wheaton's own reports. Accordingly, Wheaton brought suit against Peters, alleging violation of his common‐law copyright. In Wheaton v. Peters (1834), the Court held that its opinions were in the public domain and that the reporter's notes and commentary alone were subject to copyright.

Former congressman Benjamin Chew Howard was reporter from 1843 to 1861, producing highly praised volumes. His successor, Jeremiah Black, published but two volumes during his brief term as reporter. James Buchanan's attorney general and secretary of state, the fiery Black had alienated so many senators that his nomination as associate justice of the Court was rejected in 1861, and he became its reporter instead. An “advocate of surpassing power,” Black resigned after two years and became a leader of the post‐Civil War Supreme Court bar.

Nominative reports ended with John William Wallace. The judiciary appropriation of 1874 for the first time included a sum for publishing the Court's opinions under government auspices, and Wallace's twenty‐third volume was the last to bear a reporter's name on its spine. Relieved of tedious publishing and distribution tasks, late nineteenth‐century reporters faced a less demanding job.

William Tod Otto was the first of the “anonymous” reporters, although his name continued to appear prominently on each volume's title page. Otto's successor, John Chandler Bancroft Davis, was perhaps the most prolific officeholder ever to occupy the position. Davis was a member of the New York assembly, assistant secretary of state, American secretary to the Joint High Commission with Great Britain, arbitrator between Britain and Portugal in an African dispute, minister to Germany, judge of the court of claims, and finally reporter of the Supreme Court. Davis exemplifies the typically distinguished qualifications of the reporters. They have often held numerous positions of high responsibility before appointment as reporter although some, such as Charles Henry Butler, have perhaps consequently found the reporter's office monotonous and obscure.

Recent reporters have had equally full careers. Ernest Knaebel organized and directed the Public Lands Division of the Justice Department. Walter Wyatt rose to become general counsel of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Henry Putzel was first chief of the voting and elections section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Henry Lind was an editor at the Lawyers Co‐Operative Publishing Company, responsible for editing its U.S. Supreme Court Reports and Digest, and then served as the Court's assistant reporter of decisions.

Supreme Court reporters are unknown to the public but make possible expeditious and wide dissemination of the nation's highest judicial decisions. Although the position now calls for progressive expertise ranging from computers to systems of citation, reporters quietly continue their overlooked role as heralds of the Supreme Court.

See also Reporting of Opinions.

Bibliography

Gerald T. Dunne , Early Court Reporters, Yearbook of the Supreme Court Historical Society (1976): 61–72.
Craig Joyce , The Rise of the Supreme Court Reporter: An Institutional Perspective on Marshall Court Ascendancy, Michigan Law Review 83 (1985): 1291–1391.

Francis Helminski