This is a list of cases reported in volume 101 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1879 and 1880.
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 101 U.S. were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:
Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99 (1880), is a copyright case explaining the idea-expression dichotomy. The Supreme Court held that a book did not give its author the right to exclude others from practicing what was described in the book, only the right to exclude reproduction of the material in the book. Exclusive rights to a useful art described in a book was only available via patent, not copyright.
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 courtsâÂÂand 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.
Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions.