A Big Discovery by Gerard Magliocca
Michael Ramsey
At Concurring opinions, Gerard Magliocca reports: Not King Tut’s Tomb, But . . .:
I am pleased to announce a discovery that will interest many legal scholars. The Chicago History Museum has a journal that contains Justice Bushrod Washington’s notes on Corfield v. Coryell; the 1823 circuit case that set forth the first major interpretation of the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the Constitution and was an influential source for some members of the Thirty-Ninth Congress in assessing the meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
I am currently researching a biography of Justice Washington and learned that the Chicago History Museum has some relevant materials. The item that immediately drew my attention was a notebook that dates from the 1820s (I need to do more work to give a precise date range). The journal contains drafts of letters, legal research, notes about life at Mount Vernon, and rough versions of at least two of the Justice’s Supreme Court opinions. My eyes opened as wide as saucers, though, when I saw “Corfield v. Coryell” as a heading followed by pages of notes about the case. ...
Plus, here, "a full transcript of the money quote in Justice Washington’s notes on Corfield."