[1] 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.

Starting with the 42nd volume of U.S. Reports, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States was Benjamin Chew Howard.

As such, the dual form of citation to, for example, Christ Church v. Philadelphia County is 65 U.S. (24 How.)

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.