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Description and Holding Information
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1881-83, Miller's Supreme Court Cases, V.104-6 (parallel rpts.)
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Reports of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, October Term, 1881: by Samuel F. Miller, Vol. 1-2, Des Moines, Mills & Co., 1882, all
published. Cite as Mill. Dec. (Miller was an associate justice while he authored these reports. This is the only known instance of a sitting justice
attempting to compete with the official Reporter of Decisions; then one William T. Otto. Taking advantage of delays in the issuance of the Official
Reports, Miller issued advance reports in the pages of The Western Jurist, another publication of the Mills Company. These “advance sheets” were
subsequently compiled into full volumes. The competition lasted only through Vols. 104-105 of the Official Reports. The following narrative contrasting the
Otto and Miller versions of Vols. 104-105 is provided courtesy of Prof. Ross Davies of George Mason University School of Law, who was initially
responsible for bringing this title to our attention: “While the Miller and Otto volumes appear to contain decisions in the same cases, their reportorial
approaches are markedly different in ways that go beyond the exercise of discretion in such matters as the organization of the front matter and the
sequencing and indexing of decisions. For example, Miller tends to attribute the statement of a case to the Justice writing the majority opinion, while
Otto tends to treat that portion of each report as the work of the Reporter of Decisions. Thus, a user of Miller’s reports would understand words to have
been delivered by the Court {and thus be law, or at least direct and authoritative insight into the Court’s understanding of the case}. On the other
hand, a user of Otto’s reports would understand it to be the work of the Reporter {and thus not law}. The head-notes are different in every case,
perhaps reflecting differences in the understandings of Justice Miller and Reporter Otto about the meaning and significance of the Court’s decisions.
Again, these differences could result in different understandings of the law by users of the different versions. An additional complication is that
Justice Miller, as a member of the Court, might be viewed, either as a more reliable reporter because of his greater expertise and closer access to his
brethren, or a less reliable reporter because of his interest in seeing his view of the cases prevail over those of his colleagues. Determination of
whether such differences in reportorial approach and outlook affect the content of these reports in other ways must await closer study.”)
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Title:
Reports of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States : October term, 1881 / by Samuel F. Miller.
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OCLC Number:
270709850
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Available Volumes
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