List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 80

This is a list of cases reported in volume 80 (13 Wall.) of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1872.

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").

John William Wallace
Starting with the 66th volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was John William Wallace. Wallace was Reporter of Decisions from 1863 to 1874, covering volumes 68 through 90 of United States Reports which correspond to volumes 1 through 23 of his Wallace's Reports. As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Pumpelly v. Green Bay Co. is 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 166 (1872).

Wallace's Reports were the final nominative reports for the US Supreme Court; starting with volume 91, cases were identified simply as "(volume #) U.S. (page #) (year)".

Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of 80 U.S. (13 Wall.)
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 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) were decided the Court comprised these nine members:

United States v. Klein
The Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Klein, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 128 (1872) stands for the proposition that the legislative branch cannot impair the exclusive powers of another branch; it recognizes and supports the fundamental value of separation of powers defined by the Constitution. Specifically, Klein means that Congress may not direct the outcome of a case by prescribing the rule of decision, nor may Congress impair the power and effect of a Presidential pardon.

Tarble's Case
In Tarble's Case, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 397 (1872), the Supreme Court held that a state judge has no jurisdiction to issue a writ of habeas corpus, or to continue proceedings under the writ once issued, for the discharge of a person held by the authority of the United States by an officer of the federal government.

Watson v. Jones
Watson v. Jones, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 679 (1872), was based upon a dispute regarding the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in Kentucky. The Court held that in adjudications of church property disputes: (1) courts cannot rule on the truth or falsity of a religious teaching; (2) if a previous ecclesiastical authority structure existed before the dispute, then courts should defer to the decision of that structure; and (3) in the absence of such an internal authority structure, courts should defer to the wishes of a majority of the congregation.

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