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This List of cases involving Abraham Lincoln concerns litigation in which Abraham Lincoln participated as a lawyer. He brought cases in local courts, the Illinois Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court during his career before he became President of the United States.
Illinois Supreme Court
Abraham Lincoln was counsel of record in approximately 175 cases before Illinois' highest court. The history website of the Illinois Supreme Court lists all of these cases that have official citations, beginning with Scammin vs Wine, 3 Ill. 456 (1840), through to State of Illinois v. Illinois Central Railroad Company, 27 Ill. 64 (1861).
- People ex rel. Stevenson v. Higgins, 15 Ill. 110 (1853), concerning trustees of a hospital. Lincoln represented Higgins. He lost on the point of who, precisely, was empowered by common law to exercise the right of removal. Lincoln argued that it should only be the legislature, the governor, or the Supreme Court, but not the hospital's trustees, but the court held that the trustees too could exercise the power of amotion.
- Sprague v. Illinois River Railroad Co., 19 Ill. 174 (1857), effect of amendment to railroad company's charter on liability of stockholders.
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US Supreme Court
- Lewis v. Lewis, 48 U.S. 776 (1849), on construction of an Illinois Statute of Limitations
- Williamson v. Barrett, 54 U.S. 101 (1851), steamboat damages
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Notes
- "Lincoln Cases". www.illinoiscourts.gov. Retrieved 2018-12-22.
- The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Roy P. Basler, editor, Rutgers; 1953, II, 197-98. Lincoln's name does not, however, appear in the printed report. See also, Ewan McGaughey, Participation in Corporate Governance (2014) ch 4(3), 96.
See also
References
- Roger Billings and Frank J. Williams, eds., Abraham Lincoln, Esq.: The Legal Career of America's Greatest President (2010).
- Henry S. Cohn, "Lincoln's Law Practice", Connecticut Lawyer, vol. 20, no. 6 (February 2010)
- Henry S. Cohn, "Abraham Lincoln at the Bar", The Federal Lawyer (May 2012)
- Brian Dirck, Lincoln the Lawyer (2007) Review
- Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, Abraham Lincoln's Important Cases (1959)
- Brian McGinty, Lincoln's Greatest Case: The River, the Bridge, and the Making of America (2015)
- Mark E. Steiner, An Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln (2006)
- Daniel W. Stowell, ed., The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases (four vols., 2007) Review
- Jonathan W. White, Lincoln on Law, Leadership, and Life (2015) Review