Every year, my students find it mind-blowing that, for its first 44 years, #SCOTUS usually delivered opinions only from the bench, leaving the substance to be fleshed out through private transcription by reporters (who neglected to actually transcribe all of the Court's rulings):
It wasn't until:
1816 that Congress even began appropriating funds to pay someone to report on the Court's decisions;
1874 that Congress began paying to (privately) publish the Court's decisions, and
1922 that the government began publishing the Court's decisions itself.
1816 that Congress even began appropriating funds to pay someone to report on the Court's decisions;
1874 that Congress began paying to (privately) publish the Court's decisions, and
1922 that the government began publishing the Court's decisions itself.
And then, of course, there is the #copyright dispute between the third and fourth of the Court's reporters, culminating in the 1834 decision in Wheaton v. Peters, which, not coincidentally, was handed down five days after the rule change flagged above:
supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/…
supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/…
