Alexander J. Dallas, a Philadelphia lawyer and later United States Secretary of the Treasury, had been in the business of reporting local law cases for newspapers and periodicals.

(Court reporters in that age received no salary, but were expected to profit from the publication and sale of their compiled decisions.)

Dallas continued to collect and publish Pennsylvania and other decisions, adding federal Supreme Court cases to his reports.

Dallas remained in Philadelphia; William Cranch then replaced him as Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.

were decided, the Court comprised six of the following eleven justices at one time: In Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.)

386 (1798), the Supreme Court decided four important points of constitutional law: In Georgia v. Brailsford, 3 U.S. (3 Dall.)

During the American Revolution, the state of Georgia passed a law that sequestered debts owed to British creditors.

The Treaty of Paris, however, asserted the validity of debts held by creditors on both sides.