# List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 275

This is a list of cases reported in volume 275 of United States Reports, decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1927 and 1928.

## Justices of the Supreme Court at the time of volume 275 U.S.

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 volume 275 were decided the Court comprised the following nine members:
| Justice | Office | Home State | Succeeded | Date confirmed by the Senate (Vote) | Tenure on Supreme Court |
| William Howard Taft | Chief Justice | Connecticut | Edward Douglass White | June 30, 1921 (Acclamation) | July 11, 1921 – February 3, 1930 (Retired) |
| Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. | Associate Justice | Massachusetts | Horace Gray | December 4, 1902 (Acclamation) | December 8, 1902 – January 12, 1932 (Retired) |
| Willis Van Devanter | Associate Justice | Wyoming | Edward Douglass White (as Associate Justice) | December 15, 1910 (Acclamation) | January 3, 1911 – June 2, 1937 (Retired) |
| James Clark McReynolds | Associate Justice | Tennessee | Horace Harmon Lurton | August 29, 1914 (44–6) | October 12, 1914 – January 31, 1941 (Retired) |
| Louis Brandeis | Associate Justice | Massachusetts | Joseph Rucker Lamar | June 1, 1916 (47–22) | June 5, 1916 – February 13, 1939 (Retired) |
| George Sutherland | Associate Justice | Utah | John Hessin Clarke | September 5, 1922 (Acclamation) | October 2, 1922 – January 17, 1938 (Retired) |
| Pierce Butler | Associate Justice | Minnesota | William R. Day | December 21, 1922 (61–8) | January 2, 1923 – November 16, 1939 (Died) |
| Edward Terry Sanford | Associate Justice | Tennessee | Mahlon Pitney | January 29, 1923 (Acclamation) | February 19, 1923 – March 8, 1930 (Died) |
| Harlan F. Stone | Associate Justice | New York | Joseph McKenna | February 5, 1925 (71–6) | March 2, 1925 – July 2, 1941 (Continued as chief justice) |

## Notable Case in 275 U.S.
### Lum v. Rice

In Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927), the Supreme Court upheld blatant de jure discrimination against Asian-Americans, holding that the exclusion on account of race of a child of Chinese ancestry from a public school did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The decision effectively approved the exclusion of any minority children from schools reserved for whites. Earl Brewer, a former governor of Mississippi, represented the Lums, arguing that forcing their girls to attend the inferior school for non-white children violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights, and that since they were not Black they should be allowed to attend the schools for whites. He was able to win the writ of mandamus they sought, but then the school district appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court which unanimously reversed the lower court, holding that Mississippi's constitution and laws clearly distinguished Asians ("Mongolians", it called them) from whites, so the Lums could not attend white schools. On review in the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice William Howard Taft's unanimous opinion ended with a pronouncement that all racial segregation in schools was constitutional. While it was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education a quarter-century later, it gave greater legal foundation to educational segregation in the short term and set back efforts to end it. It is remembered today for increasing the scope of permissible segregation. Historian and educator James Loewen called Lum "the most racist Supreme Court decision in the twentieth century". Legal scholar Jamal Greene has called it an "ugly and unfortunate" decision. "The Court's ruling had established a precedent more powerful than the Lum family could have imagined", observed Adrienne Berard, in Water Tossing Boulders, a history of the case. "By fighting, they had only made the enemy stronger."

## 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.
The Judiciary Act of 1891 created the United States Courts of Appeals and reassigned the jurisdiction of most routine appeals from the district and circuit courts to these appellate courts. The Act created nine new courts that were originally known as the "United States Circuit Courts of Appeals." The new courts had jurisdiction over most appeals of lower court decisions. The Supreme Court could review either legal issues that a court of appeals certified or decisions of court of appeals by writ of certiorari. On January 1, 1912, the effective date of the Judicial Code of 1911, the old Circuit Courts were abolished, with their remaining trial court jurisdiction transferred to the U.S. District Courts.
Bluebook citation style is used for case names, citations, and jurisdictions.
* "# Cir." = United States Court of Appeals
** e.g., "3d Cir." = United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
* "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.,"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

## List of cases in volume 275 U.S.

| Case Name | Page and year | Opinion of the Court | Concurring opinion(s) | Dissenting opinion(s) | Lower Court | Disposition |
| United States ex rel. Skinner and Eddy Corporation v. McCarl | 1 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | D.C. Cir. | affirmed |
| Mammoth Oil Company v. United States | 13 (1927) | Butler | none | none | 8th Cir. | affirmed |
| Smallwood v. Gallardo | 56 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | 1st Cir. | reversed |
| Gallardo v. Santini Fertilizer Company | 62 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | D.P.R. | reversed |
| Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. Southwell | 64 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | N.C. | reversed |
| Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company v. Goodman | 66 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | 6th Cir. | reversed |
| Fairmont Creamery Company v. Minnesota | 70 (1927) | Taft | none | none | original | taxing costs denied |
| Lum v. Rice | 78 (1927) | Taft | none | none | Miss. | affirmed |
| Compañía General de Tabacos v. Collector | 87 (1927) | Taft | none | Holmes | Phil. | multiple |
| Wickwire v. Reinecke | 101 (1927) | Taft | none | none | 7th Cir. | reversed |
| Segurola v. United States | 106 (1927) | Taft | none | none | 1st Cir. | affirmed |
| Simmons v. Swan | 113 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | 1st Cir. | reversed |
| Mercantile Trust Company v. Wilmot Road District | 117 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | 8th Cir. | reversed |
| Leach and Company v. Peirson | 120 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | 3d Cir. | reversed |
| Millsaps College v. City of Jackson | 129 (1927) | McReynolds | none | none | Miss. | affirmed |
| Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company v. Moser | 133 (1927) | McReynolds | none | none | Tex. Civ. App. | reversed |
| Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Wisconsin | 136 (1927) | McReynolds | none | none | Wis. | reversed |
| Blodgett v. Holden | 142 (1927) | McReynolds | Holmes | none | 6th Cir. | certification |
| United States v. Berkeness | 149 (1927) | McReynolds | none | none | 9th Cir. | affirmed |
| St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Company v. Spiller | 156 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | original | amendment denied |
| Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company v. Wells Dickey Trust Company | 161 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | Minn. | reversed |
| City of Hammond v. Schappi Bus Line, Inc. | 164 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | 7th Cir. | decree modified |
| City of Hammond v. Farina Bus Line Transportation Company | 173 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | 7th Cir. | decree modified |
| Mason v. Routzahn | 175 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | 6th Cir. | reversed |
| News Syndicate Company v. New York Central Railroad Company | 179 (1927) | Butler | none | none | 7th Cir. | certification |
| Atwater and Company v. United States | 188 (1927) | Butler | none | none | Ct. Cl. | affirmed |
| Marron v. United States | 192 (1927) | Butler | none | none | 9th Cir. | affirmed |
| Steele v. Drummond | 199 (1927) | Butler | none | none | 5th Cir. | affirmed |
| Washington ex rel. Stimson Lumber Company v. Kuykendall | 207 (1927) | Butler | none | none | Wash. | affirmed |
| Mellon v. O'Neil | 212 (1927) | Sanford | none | none | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | dismissed |
| Willcuts v. Milton Dairy Company | 215 (1927) | Sanford | none | none | 8th Cir. | reversed |
| Blair v. Oesterlein Machine Company | 220 (1927) | Stone | none | none | D.C. Cir. | affirmed |
| Tucker v. Alexander | 228 (1927) | Stone | none | none | 8th Cir. | reversed |
| Heiner v. Colonial Trust Company | 232 (1927) | Stone | none | none | 3d Cir. | reversed |
| Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Ellzey | 236 (1927) | Stone | none | none | 5th Cir. | reversed |
| Lewellyn v. Electricity Reduction Company | 243 (1927) | Stone | none | none | 3d Cir. | reversed |
| Equitable Trust Company v. Rochling | 248 (1927) | Stone | none | none | 2d Cir. | reversed |
| Latzko v. Equitable Trust Company | 254 (1927) | Stone | none | none | 2d Cir. | reversed |
| Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. Standard Oil Company | 257 (1927) | Taft | none | none | 6th Cir. | multiple |
| Bothwell v. Buckbee Mears Company | 274 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | Minn. | affirmed |
| New Mexico v. Texas | 279 (1927) | Sanford | none | none | original | boundary set |
| Robins Dry Dock Repair Company v. Flint | 303 (1927) | Holmes | none | none | 2d Cir. | reversed |
| Gambino v. United States | 310 (1927) | Brandeis | none | none | 2d Cir. | reversed |
| Temco Electric Motor Company v. Apco Manufacturing Company | 319 (1928) | Taft | none | none | 5th Cir. | reversed |
| Richmond Screw Anchor Company v. United States | 331 (1928) | Taft | none | none | Ct. Cl. | reversed |
| United States v. Murray | 347 (1928) | Taft | none | none | 5th Cir. | multiple |
| Equitable Trust Company v. First National Bank | 359 (1928) | Holmes | none | Stone | 2d Cir. | reversed |
| Barber Asphalt Paving Company v. Standard Asphalt and Rubber Company | 372 (1928) | VanDevanter | none | none | 7th Cir. | reversed |
| The Steel Trader | 388 (1928) | McReynolds | none | none | 5th Cir. | reversed |
| Hopkins v. Southern California Telephone Company | 393 (1928) | McReynolds | none | none | 9th Cir. | affirmed |
| Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company v. United States | 404 (1928) | Brandeis | none | none | N.D. Ill. | affirmed |
| Emergency Fleet Corporation v. Western Union Telegraph Company | 415 (1928) | Brandeis | none | none | D.C. Cir. | reversed |
| Missouri Pacific Railroad Company v. Aeby | 426 (1928) | Butler | none | none | Mo. | reversed |
| N. and G. Taylor Company, Inc. v. Anderson | 431 (1928) | Butler | none | none | 7th Cir. | affirmed |
| Aetna Life Insurance Co. v. Hyde | 440 (1928) | Butler | none | none | Mo. | dismissed |
| Roche v. McDonald | 449 (1928) | Sanford | none | none | Wash. | reversed |
| Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company v. Wells | 455 (1928) | Sanford | none | none | Miss. | reversed |
| Mellon v. Arkansas Land and Lumber Company | 460 (1928) | Sanford | none | none | Ark. | reversed |
| Jackson v. Steamship Archimedes | 463 (1928) | Sanford | none | none | 2d Cir. | affirmed |
| Ingram Day Lumber Company v. McLouth | 471 (1928) | Stone | none | none | 6th Cir. | reversed |
| Nagle v. Loi Hoa | 475 (1928) | Stone | none | none | 9th Cir. | reversed |
| E.W. Bliss Company v. United States | 509 (1927) | per curiam | none | none | Ct. Cl. | reversed |