This is a list of cases reported in volume 261 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1923.

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 261 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 261 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) Joseph McKenna Associate Justice California Stephen Johnson Field (Acclamation) –January 5, 1925(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)

Notable cases in 261 U.S. Moore v. Dempsey In Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U.S. 86 (1923), the Supreme Court held that the African-American defendants' mob-dominated trials deprived them of due process guaranteed by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It reversed the U.S. district court's decision declining the petitioners' writ of habeas corpus. This case was a precedent for the Supreme Court's review of state criminal trials in terms of their compliance with the Bill of Rights. Moore is a significant precedent for wider use of federal writs of habeas corpus to review state court convictions that occurred under conditions abridging federal constitutional rights. It marked the beginning of stricter scrutiny by the Supreme Court of state criminal trials in terms of their compliance with the Bill of Rights. This ruling reduced the capacity of a local community "to permanently deprive or deny the rights of those who might be prosecuted in its courts."Harrison Bennett, "The Phillips County Riot Cases", Chicken Bones: A Journal, 2012 (article first published as "Justice on Trial: The Phillips County Riot Cases", December 1999, Arkansas State University.

United States v. Thind United States v. Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923), is a Supreme Court decision that Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian Sikh man who identified himself as an Aryan, was ineligible for naturalized citizenship in the United States. Thind had filed a petition for naturalization under the Naturalization Act of 1906 which allowed only "free white persons" and "aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent" to become United States citizens by naturalization. After his petition was granted, government attorneys initiated a proceeding to cancel Thind's naturalization. Thind did not challenge the constitutionality of the racial restrictions. Instead, he attempted to be classified as a "free white person" within the meaning of the Naturalization Act based on the fact that Indians and Europeans share common descent from Proto-Indo-Europeans. The Supreme Court rejected Thind's argument, adding that Thind did not meet a "common sense" definition of white. The Court concluded that "the term 'Aryan' has to do with linguistic, and not with physical characteristics.

Adkins v. Children's Hospital In Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S. 525 (1923), the Supreme Court ruled that federal minimum wage legislation for women was an unconstitutional infringement of liberty of contract, as protected by the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. Adkins was eventually overturned in the 1937 decision West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish.

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 261 U.S. Case Name Page and year Opinion of the Court Concurring opinion(s) Dissenting opinion(s) Lower Court Disposition Gorham Manufacturing Company v. Wendell 1 (1923) Taft none none S.D.N.Y. motions granted Vandenburgh v. Truscon Steel Company 6 (1923) Taft none none 6th Cir. affirmed Concrete Steel Company v. Vendenburgh 16 (1923) Taft none none 2d Cir. reversed Charles Nelson Company v. United States 17 (1923) Taft none none Ct. Cl. affirmed Crown Die and Tool Company v. Nye Tool and Machine Works 24 (1923) Taft none none 7th Cir. reversed Eibel Process Company v. Minnesota and Ontario Paper Company 45 (1923) Taft none none 1st Cir. reversed Pennsylvania Railroad Co. v. United States Railroad Labor Board 72 (1923) Taft none none 7th Cir. affirmed Moore v. Dempsey 86 (1923) Holmes none McReynolds E.D. Ark. reversed Diaz v. Gonzalez 102 (1923) Holmes none none 1st Cir. reversed United States Grain Corporation v. Phillips 106 (1923) Holmes none none 2d Cir. reversed Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Company 114 (1923) VanDevanter none none Ind. dismissed Great Northern Railroad Company v. Steinke 119 (1923) VanDevanter none none N.D. reversed Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Wolf 133 (1923) McReynolds none none 8th Cir. reversed Minnesota Commercial Men's Association v. Benn 140 (1923) McReynolds none none Minn. reversed United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation v. Sullivan 146 (1923) McReynolds none none Pa. Super. Ct. dismissed Durham Public Service Company v. City of Durham 149 (1923) McReynolds none none N.C. affirmed Valley Farms Company of Yonkers v. Westchester County 155 (1923) McReynolds none none N.Y. Sup. Ct. affirmed Douglas v. Noble 165 (1923) Brandeis none none W.D. Wash. reversed Bank of America v. Whitney Central National Bank 171 (1923) Brandeis none none S.D.N.Y. affirmed Lumiere v. Mae Edna Wilder, Inc. 174 (1923) Brandeis none none S.D.N.Y. affirmed - style="background: white" colspan=7 A person or corporation cannot file suits under the Copyright Act in areas in which they do not have an office and do no business. Price Fire and Water Proofing Company v. United States 179 (1923) Brandeis none none Ct. Cl. affirmed New England Divisions Case 184 (1923) Brandeis none none S.D.N.Y. affirmed United States v. Thind 204 (1923) Sutherland none none 9th Cir. certification Brownlow v. Schwartz 216 (1923) Sutherland none none D.C. Cir. reversed Cramer v. United States 219 (1923) Sutherland none none 9th Cir. reversed Columbia Railway, Gas and Electric Company v. South Carolina 236 (1923) Sutherland none none S.C. reversed Randall v. Tippecanoe County 252 (1923) Sutherland none none Ind. dismissed United States v. Oklahoma 253 (1923) Butler none none original dismissed Western and Atlantic Railroad v. Railroad Commission of Georgia 264 (1923) Butler none none N.D. Ga. order vacated Paducah v. Paducah Railroad Company 267 (1923) Butler none none W.D. Ky. affirmed Munter v. Weil Corset Company, Inc. 276 (1923) McKenna none none D. Conn. reversed Davis v. Dantzler Lumber Company 280 (1923) McKenna none none Miss. reversed Oklahoma Natural Gas Company v. Russell 290 (1923) Holmes none none W.D. Okla. reversed United States v. Benedict 294 (1923) McReynolds none none 2d Cir. affirmed Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company v. United States 299 (1923) Butler none none 4th Cir. reversed Pothier v. Rodman 307 (1923) Taft none none D.R.I. docketing denied City of New York v. New York Telephone Company 312 (1923) Taft none none S.D.N.Y. dismissed United States v. Allen 317 (1923) McKenna none none Ct. Cl. affirmed United States v. Moran 321 (1923) McKenna none none Ct. Cl. affirmed Ewen v. American Fidelity Company 322 (1923) Holmes none none 2d Cir. reversed Fox Film Corporation v. Knowles 326 (1923) Holmes none none 2d Cir. reversed Pullman Company v. Richardson 330 (1923) VanDevanter none none Cal. affirmed Oklahoma v. Texas 340 (1923) per curiam none none original boundary set Work v. United States ex rel. Mosier 352 (1923) Taft none none D.C. Cir. reversed United States v. Rider 363 (1923) Taft none none Ct. Cl. reversed St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company v. Public Service Commission of Missouri 369 (1923) McKenna none none Mo. reversed Federal Land Bank of New Orleans v. Crosland 374 (1923) Holmes none none Ala. reversed Arkansas Natural Gas Company v. Arkansas Railroad Commission 379 (1923) Sutherland none none E.D. Ark. affirmed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company v. United States 385 (1923) Sanford none none Ct. Cl. affirmed Layne and Bowler Corporation v. Western Well Works, Inc. 387 (1923) Taft none none 9th Cir. dismissed Hallanan v. Eureka Pipe Line Company 393 (1923) Taft none none W. Va. dismissed Hallanan v. United Fuel Gas Company 398 (1923) Taft none none W. Va.