This brief article explains the concept of original jurisdiction, especially in terms of the U.S. Supreme Court. There are links in the article to actual cases.

This encyclopedia article is a brief biography of Dred Scott, the slave who sued for his freedom. His case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he lost.

Baldwin was born at Guilford, Conn., in 1754, the second son of a blacksmith who fathered 12 children by 2 wives. Besides Abraham, several of the family attained distinction. His sister Ruth married the poet and diplomat Joel Barlow, and...

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that African-Americans were not citizens of the United States. Yet within 18 years, Black Americans would not only have citizenship, but would be guaranteed the right to...

In this lesson plan, young scholars will consider "John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, and Judicial Review-How the Court Became Supreme." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.

Franklin Roosevelt had many critics, many of whom criticized him for not going far enough with his New Deal legislation. Read about three such critics and their plans.

This web page, which is provided for by the Cornell University Law School, explains the process of getting married and its origin.

Home of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Abraham Lincoln campaign manager David Davis.

This entry from Encyclopedia Britannica features Samuel Freeman Miller, an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1862-90), a leading opponent of efforts to use the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution to protect business...

At the Cornell Law School you can read a very simple definition of the legal term "tort" and read about the 1993 Supreme Court case "Smith v. United States."

(1777-1864) "Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, who gave the decision in the Dred Scott Case." -Foster, 1921