The First Decade of the United States Supreme Court

Constitutional development in the United States Supreme Court is commonly held to have begun with Chief Justice John Marshall. It is rare to find a study devoted exclusively to the pre-John Marshall Court. Most references to the first decade of the Court are generally phrased in quaint sounding reflections on the virtually anonymous members who sat on the Court during the 1790s. This book, through analysis and elaboration of several seminal cases brought before the Court under Chief Justices Jay and Ellsworth shows that in fact constitutional jurisprudence began in the United States in the decade before John Marshall arrived. This book will benefit the specialist and general reader alike. For the specialist, it will re-examine positive issues that have been overlooked or abandoned for years; while the general reader will come to appreciate the early struggles which ensued over the development of an American concept of constitutional jurisprudence.