This is a list of cases reported in volume 10 (6 Cranch) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1810.

Nominative reports

In 1874, the U.S. government created the United States Reports, and retroactively numbered older privately-published case reports as part of the new series. As a result, cases appearing in volumes 1–90 of U.S. Reports have dual citation forms; one for the volume number of U.S. Reports, and one for the volume number of the reports named for the relevant reporter of decisions (these are called "nominative reports").

William Cranch

Starting with the 5th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was William Cranch. Cranch was Reporter of Decisions from 1801 to 1815, covering volumes 5 through 13 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 9 of his Cranch's Reports. As such, the complete citation to, for example, Field v. Holland is 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 8 (1810).

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 10 U.S. (6 Cranch)

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). 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 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) were decided, the Court comprised these seven justices:

Notable cases in 10 U.S. (6 Cranch)

Fletcher v. Peck

In Fletcher v. Peck, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 87 (1810), for the first time the Court held a state law to be unconstitutional (in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), the Supreme Court had for the first time held a federal law to be unconstitutional). The Court in Fletcher helped create a line of precedents supporting the sanctity of contracts, and hinted that Native Americans did not hold complete title to their own lands.

Tyler v. Tuel

In Tyler v. Tuel, 10 U.S. (6 Cranch) 324 (1810), the Court held that an assignee of a geographically limited patent right could not bring an action in the assignee's own name. It was the first published Supreme Court decision on patent law. Like other Supreme Court patent cases prior to Evans v. Eaton, 16 U.S. (3 Wheat.) 454 (1818), however, it did not deal with substantive patent law, but only with the law of patent assignment.

Citation style

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

List of cases in 10 U.S. (6 Cranch)

Notes and references