This is a list of cases reported in volume 275 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1927 and 1928.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 275 U.S.

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 volume 275 were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:

Portrait Justice Office Home State Succeeded Date confirmed by the Senate(Vote) Tenure on Supreme Court William Howard Taft Chief Justice Connecticut Edward Douglass White (Acclamation) –February 3, 1930(Retired) Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Associate Justice Massachusetts Horace Gray (Acclamation) –January 12, 1932(Retired) Willis Van Devanter Associate Justice Wyoming Edward Douglass White (as Associate Justice) (Acclamation) –June 2, 1937(Retired) James Clark McReynolds Associate Justice Tennessee Horace Harmon Lurton (44–6) –January 31, 1941(Retired) Louis Brandeis Associate Justice Massachusetts Joseph Rucker Lamar (47–22) –February 13, 1939(Retired) George Sutherland Associate Justice Utah John Hessin Clarke (Acclamation) –January 17, 1938(Retired) Pierce Butler Associate Justice Minnesota William R. Day (61–8) –November 16, 1939(Died) Edward Terry Sanford Associate Justice Tennessee Mahlon Pitney (Acclamation) –March 8, 1930(Died) Harlan F. Stone Associate Justice New York Joseph McKenna (71–6) –July 2, 1941(Continued as chief justice)

Notable Case in 275 U.S.

Lum v. Rice In Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927), the Supreme Court upheld blatant de jure discrimination against Asian-Americans, holding that the exclusion on account of race of a child of Chinese ancestry from a public school did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The decision effectively approved the exclusion of any minority children from schools reserved for whites. Earl Brewer, a former governor of Mississippi, represented the Lums, arguing that forcing their girls to attend the inferior school for non-white children violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights, and that since they were not Black they should be allowed to attend the schools for whites. He was able to win the writ of mandamus they sought, but then the school district appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court which unanimously reversed the lower court, holding that Mississippi's constitution and laws clearly distinguished Asians ("Mongolians", it called them) from whites, so the Lums could not attend white schools. On review in the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice William Howard Taft's unanimous opinion ended with a pronouncement that all racial segregation in schools was constitutional. While it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education a quarter-century later, it gave greater legal foundation to educational segregation in the short term and set back efforts to end it. It is remembered today for increasing the scope of permissible segregation. Historian and educator James Loewen called Lum "the most racist Supreme Court decision in the twentieth century". Legal scholar Jamal Greene has called it an "ugly and unfortunate" decision. "The Court's ruling had established a precedent more powerful than the Lum family could have imagined", observed Adrienne Berard, in Water Tossing Boulders, a history of the case. "By fighting, they had only made the enemy stronger."

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.

The Judiciary Act of 1891 created the United States Courts of Appeals and reassigned the jurisdiction of most routine appeals from the district and circuit courts to these appellate courts. The Act created nine new courts that were originally known as the "United States Circuit Courts of Appeals." The new courts had jurisdiction over most appeals of lower court decisions. The Supreme Court could review either legal issues that a court of appeals certified or decisions of court of appeals by writ of certiorari. On January 1, 1912, the effective date of the Judicial Code of 1911, the old Circuit Courts were abolished, with their remaining trial court jurisdiction transferred to the U.S. District Courts.

Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions. "# Cir." = United States Court of Appeals e.g., "3d Cir." = United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit "D." = United States District Court for the District of . . . e.g.,"D. Mass." = United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts "E." = Eastern; "M." = Middle; "N." = Northern; "S." = Southern; "W." = Western e.g.,"M.D. Ala." = United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama "Ct. Cl." = United States Court of Claims The abbreviation of a state's name alone indicates the highest appellate court in that state's judiciary at the time. e.g.,"Pa." = Supreme Court of Pennsylvania e.g.,"Me." = Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

List of cases in volume 275 U.S.

Case Name Page and year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower Court Disposition United States ex rel. Skinner and Eddy Corporation v. McCarl1 (1927) Brandeis none none D.C. Cir. affirmed Mammoth Oil Company v. United States13 (1927) Butler none none 8th Cir. affirmed Smallwood v. Gallardo56 (1927) Holmes none none 1st Cir. reversed Gallardo v. Santini Fertilizer Company62 (1927) Holmes none none D.P.R. reversed Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. Southwell64 (1927) Holmes none none N.C. reversed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company v. Goodman66 (1927) Holmes none none 6th Cir. reversed Fairmont Creamery Company v. Minnesota70 (1927) Taft none none original taxing costs denied Lum v. Rice78 (1927) Taft none none Miss. affirmed Compañía General de Tabacos v. Collector87 (1927) Taft none Holmes Phil. multiple Wickwire v. Reinecke101 (1927) Taft none none 7th Cir. reversed Segurola v. United States106 (1927) Taft none none 1st Cir. affirmed Simmons v. Swan113 (1927) Holmes none none 1st Cir. reversed Mercantile Trust Company v. Wilmot Road District117 (1927) Holmes none none 8th Cir. reversed Leach and Company v. Peirson120 (1927) Holmes none none 3d Cir. reversed Millsaps College v. City of Jackson129 (1927) McReynolds none none Miss. affirmed Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Moser133 (1927) McReynolds none none Tex. Civ. App. reversed Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Wisconsin136 (1927) McReynolds none none Wis. reversed Blodgett v. Holden142 (1927) McReynolds Holmes none 6th Cir. certification United States v. Berkeness149 (1927) McReynolds none none 9th Cir. affirmed St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Company v. Spiller156 (1927) Brandeis none none original amendment denied Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company v. Wells Dickey Trust Company161 (1927) Brandeis none none Minn. reversed City of Hammond v. Schappi Bus Line, Inc.164 (1927) Brandeis none none 7th Cir. decree modified City of Hammond v. Farina Bus Line Transportation Company173 (1927) Brandeis none none 7th Cir. decree modified Mason v. Routzahn175 (1927) Brandeis none none 6th Cir. reversed News Syndicate Company v. New York Central Railroad Company179 (1927) Butler none none 7th Cir. certification Atwater and Company v. United States188 (1927) Butler none none Ct. Cl. affirmed Marron v. United States192 (1927) Butler none none 9th Cir. affirmed Steele v. Drummond199 (1927) Butler none none 5th Cir. affirmed Washington ex rel. Stimson Lumber Company v. Kuykendall207 (1927) Butler none none Wash. affirmed Mellon v. O'Neil212 (1927) Sanford none none N.Y. Sup. Ct. dismissed Willcuts v. Milton Dairy Company215 (1927) Sanford none none 8th Cir. reversed Blair v. Oesterlein Machine Company220 (1927) Stone none none D.C. Cir. affirmed Tucker v. Alexander228 (1927) Stone none none 8th Cir. reversed Heiner v. Colonial Trust Company232 (1927) Stone none none 3d Cir. reversed Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Ellzey236 (1927) Stone none none 5th Cir. reversed Lewellyn v. Electricity Reduction Company243 (1927) Stone none none 3d Cir. reversed Equitable Trust Company v. Rochling248 (1927) Stone none none 2d Cir. reversed Latzko v. Equitable Trust Company254 (1927) Stone none none 2d Cir. reversed Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. Standard Oil Company257 (1927) Taft none none 6th Cir. multiple Bothwell v. Buckbee Mears Company274 (1927) Brandeis none none Minn. affirmed New Mexico v. Texas279 (1927) Sanford none none original boundary set Robins Dry Dock Repair Company v. Flint303 (1927) Holmes none none 2d Cir. reversed Gambino v. United States310 (1927) Brandeis none none 2d Cir. reversed Temco Electric Motor Company v. Apco Manufacturing Company319 (1928) Taft none none 5th Cir. reversed Richmond Screw Anchor Company v. United States331 (1928) Taft none none Ct. Cl. reversed United States v. Murray347 (1928) Taft none none 5th Cir. multiple Equitable Trust Company v. First National Bank359 (1928) Holmes none Stone 2d Cir. reversed Barber Asphalt Paving Company v. Standard Asphalt and Rubber Company372 (1928) VanDevanter none none 7th Cir. reversed The Steel Trader388 (1928) McReynolds none none 5th Cir. reversed Hopkins v. Southern California Telephone Company393 (1928) McReynolds none none 9th Cir. affirmed Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company v. United States404 (1928) Brandeis none none N.D. Ill. affirmed Emergency Fleet Corporation v. Western Union Telegraph Company415 (1928) Brandeis none none D.C. Cir. reversed Missouri Pacific Railroad Company v. Aeby426 (1928) Butler none none Mo. reversed N. and G. Taylor Company, Inc. v. Anderson431 (1928) Butler none none 7th Cir. affirmed Aetna Life Insurance Co. v. Hyde440 (1928) Butler none none Mo. dismissed Roche v. McDonald449 (1928) Sanford none none Wash. reversed Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company v. Wells455 (1928) Sanford none none Miss. reversed Mellon v. Arkansas Land and Lumber Company460 (1928) Sanford none none Ark. reversed Jackson v. Steamship Archimedes463 (1928) Sanford none none 2d Cir. affirmed Ingram Day Lumber Company v. McLouth471 (1928) Stone none none 6th Cir. reversed Nagle v. Loi Hoa475 (1928) Stone none none 9th Cir. reversed E.W. Bliss Company v. United States509 (1927) per curiam none none Ct. Cl. reversed

Notes and references

External links Case reports in volume 275 from Library of Congress Case reports in volume 275 from Court Listener Case reports in volume 275 from the Caselaw Access Project of Harvard Law School Case reports in volume 275 from Google Scholar Case reports in volume 275 from Justia Case reports in volume 275 from Open Jurist Website of the United States Supreme Court United States Courts website about the Supreme Court National Archives, Records of the Supreme Court of the United States