List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 36

This is a list of cases reported in volume 36 (11 Pet.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1837.

Nominative reports
In 1874, the U.S. government created the United States Reports, and retroactively numbered older privately-published case reports as part of the new series. As a result, cases appearing in volumes 1–90 of U.S. Reports have dual citation forms; one for the volume number of U.S. Reports, and one for the volume number of the reports named for the relevant reporter of decisions (these are called "nominative reports").

Richard Peters, Jr.
Starting with the 26th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was Richard Peters, Jr. Peters was Reporter of Decisions from 1828 to 1843, covering volumes 26 through 41 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 16 of his Peters's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Rhode Island v. Massachusetts is 36 U.S. (11 Pet.) 226 (1837).

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 36 U.S. (11 Pet.)
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 36 U.S. (11 Pet.) were decided, the Court comprised these seven justices:



Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge
Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge, 36 U.S. (11 Pet.) 420 (1837), was a case regarding two financially-competing bridges, the Charles River Bridge and the Warren Bridge, of Boston, Massachusetts; it was heard by the Supreme Court early in the term of office of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In 1785, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted the Charles River Bridge Company a charter to construct a bridge over the Charles River connecting Boston and Charlestown. The charter did not expressly grant exclusive rights to the Charles River proprietors. In 1828 the Massachusetts legislature sanctioned another company to build the Warren Bridge, close to the first bridge and connecting the same cities. The owners of the Charles River Bridge claimed the Commonwealth had broken its contract with it, and so had violated the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court, however, found for the Warren Bridge, pointing out that with the progress of technology, canals and railroads had started to take away business from highways, and if corporate charters implied monopolies, then transportation improvements would not be able to flourish.

Poole v. Lessee of Fleeger
In Poole v. Lessee of Fleeger, 36 U.S. (11 Pet.) 185 (1837), the Supreme Court held that the states of Kentucky and Tennessee had properly entered into an agreement establishing a mutual border between the two states. The plaintiffs in the case were improperly granted title to property by Tennessee outside of its agreed border. In the ruling, the Supreme Court asserted the fundamental right of states and nations to establish their borders regardless of private contract.

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.

Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions.
 * "C.C.D." = United States Circuit Court for the District of . ..
 * e.g.,"C.C.D.N.J." = United States Circuit Court for the District of New Jersey
 * "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.,"C.C.S.D.N.Y." = United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York
 * 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