Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

15 U.S. 395

4 L. Ed. 271

2 Wheat. 395

United States v. Barker

Supreme Court of the United States

Decided March 15th

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1817-03-15

United States v. Barker, 15 U.S. (2 Wheat.) 395 (1817), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court upholding the common law tradition that private citizens may not demand costs from the federal government. The case involved a motion for costs filed against the United States Government and resolved the previously unanswered question of whether courts could award costs against the United States federal government. The Court's opinion read, in its entirety, "The United States never pay costs." Jurists have remarked that Chief Justice John Marshall's six-word opinion is one of the shortest Supreme Court cases ever written.

Source: Wikipedia ↗

2 counsel of record

Relies on The United States v. John Goodwin

Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Costs”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Petition denied / appeal dismissed · 7–0 · Decided 1817-03-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 132 later decisions (18 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 1999 · most notably United States v. Gilbert Associates, Inc. (1953), United States v. Waddill, Holland & Flinn, Inc. (1945)

43 federal appellate · 3 district · 35 state decisions — followed in 21 states

2001817182018301840185018601870188018901900191019201930194019501960197019801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1(practice.)

¶2A writ of error does not lie to carry to this court a civil cause which has been carried from the district to the circuit court by .writ of error.

¶3The United States never pay’costs.

¶4Mr. Baldwin, for the plaintiffs in error,

¶5moved dismiss the writ of error in this case, as having been improvidently allowed, the cause haying been carried up from the district to the circuit, court of New-York by writ of error r and, according to the. former decisions of this court, a Writ of error does not lie to carry to this court civil cause , which, has been carried from the district to. the circuit court by writ of error.a

¶6Mr. D. B. Ogden, for the defendant, moved for costs.

¶8[Mr. Chief Justice Marshall.

¶9The United States never pay costs.]

¶10Writ of error dismissed without costs.

/15/us/395 · .json · Public domain