The First Notable Supreme Court Decisions

The United States Supreme Court was assembled throughout 1789 and convened for the first time on February 2, 1790. Between 1789 and 1801, the Supreme Court had three chief justices: John Jay, John Rutledge, and Oliver Ellsworth. These judges presided over the earliest cases heard by the US Supreme Court.

A New York City native, John Jay was born in 1745 and served as one of the nation’s founding fathers. In addition to serving in the Continental Congress, he contributed to the Federalist Papers and served as chief justice for the state of New York. President George Washington appointed Jay as the nation’s first chief justice in 1789.

The first-ever case docketed for the US Supreme Court was Van Staphorst v. Maryland in 1791. The origins of the case involved the Van Staphorst brothers, bankers who lent the state of Maryland money over the course of the Revolutionary War. At the conclusion of the war, the state declined to pay back the loan under the terms set by the brothers. Although the case was accepted and docketed by the Supreme Court, the parties settled prior to litigation. Collet v. Collet was also docketed but dropped prior to oral arguments.

West v. Barnes also came to the Supreme Court in 1791, and would be the first case decided by the court, with John Jay as chief justice. William West of Rhode Island owed a mortgage on his farm and, after 20 years of payments, conducted a lottery and paid off the remaining debt with paper currency, as opposed to gold and silver. David L. Barnes refused the payment and demanded gold and silver, resulting in litigation.

The court ultimately rendered a decision on procedural grounds, determining that West’s appeal for lottery should have been made with the clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States, as opposed to a lower court. Following the decision, Congress amended the Process and Compensation Act of 1792 so that citizens could make such appeals with local circuit courts.

Chisholm v. Georgia is often regarded as the most controversial and impactful decision made by the Supreme Court during Jay’s tenure as chief justice. The origins of the case can be traced back to 1777, when Thomas Stone and Edward Davies purchased goods to support American troops in Savannah. Robert Farquhar, the merchant, died before payment was rendered, and his estate made a claim on the debt in 1789. Alexander Chisholm, executor of Farquhar’s estate, filed the case with a circuit court in 1791.

In a 4-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Chisholm. As part of the summary, Jay and the other justices stated that federal courts hold jurisdiction in cases involving a state and a citizen of another state, assuming the state is the defendant. Jay also led the court when the 11th Amendment was proposed by Congress, a direct response to the Chisholm v. Georgia ruling that dictates an individual’s capacity to litigate against a state in federal court.

In 1794, Jay stepped away from the Supreme Court to resume his duties as a diplomat, traveling to Great Britain to resolve tensions surrounding exports, seizures, and occupation. He played a driving role in the development and passing of the Jay Treaty, which many Americans protested for what they believed to be overly favorable terms for the British. However, Jay’s actions as a diplomat helped avoid embroiling the nation in a war it was not ready to fight. By the time he returned to the United States, he learned that he had been elected governor of New York, at which point he resigned his position as chief justice.

Jay was followed as chief justice by John Rutledge in 1795 and Oliver Ellsworth in 1796, though no major cases were heard during this time.

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The First Six Supreme Court Justices

The United States Supreme Court was established through the United States Constitution, though the court did not formally begin to take shape until the passing of the Judiciary Act of 1789, which was signed by President George Washington. Washington nominated John Jay as the first-ever chief justice, along with associate justices John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair Jr., Robert Hanson Harrison, and James Wilson.

All appointments were approved by the United States Senate on September 26, 1789, and the court assembled for the first time in February of the following year. The court reconvened in August of 1790, though the first two meetings were largely uneventful, mainly involving the approval of bar appointments and other general matters of the court system.

Chief Justice John Jay was the author of numerous essays found in The Federalist, a collection of nearly 100 essays encouraging New York citizens to support the recently proposed American Constitution. The essays were published anonymously at the time, but were later attributed to Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.

During his time as chief justice, Jay ran for governor of New York on multiple occasions. He also negotiated a treaty with Great Britain, known as the Jay Treaty, which addressed various outstanding issues resulting from America’s movement to independence from Great Britain. Despite the lack of support for the Jay Treaty in the United States, Jay’s reason for stepping down as Chief Justice in 1795 was due not to his negotiation of the treaty, but rather to his success in one of his gubernatorial bids.

James Wilson had been a prominent figure over the course of the Constitutional Convention, but his appointment to the Supreme Court resulted in a number of professional troubles. Although he was a knowledgeable legal theorist, he routinely missed high court sessions in order to dodge bill collectors after entering into several bad land deals.

John Rutledge had also been a presence at the Constitutional Convention, prompting Washington to appoint him to the high court. Rutledge had a unique career as a member of the Supreme Court: in 1791, just a year after the court’s first meeting, he became the first justice to quit, doing so before the Supreme Court heard its first case. However, Washington asked Rutledge to take over for John Jay as chief justice in 1795, a request Rutledge accepted.

The controversy did not end there. While Rutledge heard two cases as chief justice, he was never approved by the Senate, which objected to his outspoken vitriol for the aforementioned Jay Treaty. After the Senate elected to remove Rutledge from his position, he responded by jumping into the Charleston Bay. Rutledge survived the jump but never held public office again.

Unlike several of the first six Supreme Court justices, William Cushing served on the high court for a number of years, serving until 1810. He was offered the position of chief justice in 1796, after Rutledge’s removal. He declined, despite a nomination from Washington and unanimous approval from the Senate.

John Blair Jr., meanwhile, was a notable Virginian jurist prior to his brief time on the Supreme Court. Like Jay, he stepped down from his position in 1795.

Finally, Robert Hanson Harrison provided aid to Washington over the course of the Revolutionary War, followed by a stint as the president’s military secretary. He had the shortest run of any original justice, dying of illness in April of 1790 before officially accepting the position.

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What Does the LSAT Test?

 A standardized test required for admission to law school, the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) has existed in various forms since 1948. The test comprises three sections: logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, and reading comprehension. The logical reasoning section aims to test a student’s ability to evaluate arguments by asking them to make an argument stronger or weaker and to identify assumptions and flaws an author may have made in their reasoning.

The analytical reasoning section often referred to as the logic games section, requires the test-taker to analyze the relationship between various sequences and objects and then create a set of rules that describes the relationship. In the reading comprehension section, students read passages to identify the main idea, detect assumptions or reasoning flaws, and draw conclusions.

In addition to the various test sections, the LSAT contains an experimental section that does not affect the score. Test developers use this section to test items for future use. It may appear anywhere in the test, and test takers do not know which section is experimental. Students also must complete a timed writing sample. Although the writing sample does not receive a score, law schools receive the sample with the student’s LSAT results.

Scored on a curve from 120 to 180, the LSAT aims to test an individual’s ability to utilize language logically and effectively. To perform well on the test, students should work to cultivate four core skills.

First, they must practice reading critically and quickly. Attorneys in the field must read vast amounts of text, scanning for relevant details. All the LSAT sections require critical reading, though the reading comprehension section focuses exclusively on this skill. Critical reading skills require efficiently reading and digesting information, then articulating key ideas to make an argument.

The second core skill required for a successful LSAT score is analyzing arguments, emphasized in the Logical Reasoning section. The test-taker must accept the argument in the test question as true before utilizing their logic to interpret and criticize the argument. This involves identifying the author’s conclusion, summarizing their supporting arguments, and articulating the connection between evidence and conclusion. Dissecting an argument to find the assumption is key.

Next, LSAT takers must demonstrate an understanding of formal logic rules. Test takers analyze arguments and solve logic games using a deliberate step-by-step process. After seeking out the conditional elements of a logical statement using an if/then formula, they can understand whether a statement is true, false, or possible.

Finally, LSAT success requires the ability to make deductions. In a Logic Games passage, for example, test takers must evaluate a group of facts and rules to determine what could or must be true. This requires deductive reasoning to determine relationships between persons, events, or things.

Organization and the logical interpretation of the rules are paramount in Logic Games. Test takers must eliminate as much uncertainty as possible from each game to obtain an efficient and correct answer.

Above all, the LSAT is a test of skills, not knowledge, which means successful test prep should focus on verbal reasoning, analytical thinking, and critical reading. Memorizing factual information does not tend to improve test scores.

Jury Rules and Social Media

Under the Sixth Amendment, any individual facing a criminal charge has the right to a fair trial decided by an impartial jury. To meet these criteria, jurors must not enter into a case with a preformed opinion about the defendant, prosecutor, or crime. Instead, the juror must weigh the evidence presented in court and make an informed decision based on the facts.

While any American citizen can serve on a jury, lawyers on both sides question potential jurors to eliminate individuals who may hold biased viewpoints. Media exposure to the trial or case is a common basis for juror rejection. If a case attracts a high level of public attention, it can be difficult to identify jurors who have not viewed potentially influential media before or during the trial.

Social media has complicated jury bias and media exposure, as many platforms serve both personal and informational purposes. People routinely share news articles with their online connections. Since individuals have little control over what appears in their social media feed, completely avoiding media trial coverage can be impossible.

Legal experts have raised several concerns about the proliferation of juror social media use and impartiality. First, jurors may be exposed to information purposefully excluded from trial evidence. This issue was prominent in a recent high-profile defamation case between actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

Prior to the US trial, Depp lost a libel case in the United Kingdom. While evidence from the UK trial was not permitted in the following trial, descriptions of the UK trial’s evidence were easily searchable online. Conversely, thousands of media posts dissected the evidence presented in the US trial for signs of fabrication.

Jurors were instructed to refrain from researching the case, but were not sequestered. After the verdict, Heard's lawyers filed an appeal based on prolific media coverage of the trial and the potential of juror exposure.

Social media also complicates the ability to assess the case for a mistrial. Jurors may post information about the trial or sentiments that suggest a lack of impartiality in the case. However, identifying misconduct on an online platform is time-consuming, and evidence of juror bias may slip through the cracks.

To avoid these issues, state and federal legal systems have implemented codes of conduct for Internet and social media use. Jurors receive clear instructions to decide the case based only on the evidence presented in the courtroom.

This means that jurors should exclude any information or opinions solicited from outside sources from the verdict deliberation. Potential and selected jurors are also barred from doing any Internet searches on the trial or involved individuals.

The rules regarding social media consider that many people rely on these platforms to communicate with their families or run their businesses. For this reason, jurors are still permitted to use their accounts. However, they must not engage in any behavior that would affect their impartiality.

This includes sharing information about the trial or connecting with other jurors or litigants. The consequences for violating these rules are severe. Jurors may face sequestration or contempt of court charges. In some cases, juror misconduct can also serve as the basis for a mistrial.