In re Ross

In re Ross, or Ross v. McIntyre, 140 U.S. 453 (1891), was a US Supreme Court case decided on May 21, 1891, that dealt with the application of American law by US consular courts over foreign sailors on American-flagged ships in countries in which the United States exercised extraterritorial jurisdiction.

In re Ross
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 30 – May 1, 1891 Decided May 25, 1891
Full case name	Ross v. McIntyre, Superintendent of the Penitentiary of the State of New York at Albany
Citations	140 U.S. 453 (more) 11 S. Ct. 897; 35 L. Ed. 581; 1891 U.S. LEXIS 2479
Holding
A vessel being American is evidence that a seaman on board is such.
Court membership
Chief Justice Melville Fuller Associate Justices Stephen J. Field · Joseph P. Bradley John M. Harlan · Horace Gray Samuel Blatchford · Lucius Q. C. Lamar II David J. Brewer · Henry B. Brown
Case opinion
Majority	Field, joined by unanimous

Background

John M. Ross, a Canadian sailor on the American ship Bullion, was convicted in the US consular court in Yokohama of murder on the ship while it was in that city before the US consul general at Kanagawa, Thomas van Buren. Ross was sentenced to death, but US President Rutherford B. Hayes commuted the sentence to a life sentence of hard labor at Albany Penitentiary.

Although Ross accepted the commutation, he later sought a writ of habeas corpus for his release on the grounds that having been born on Prince Edward Island, he was a British subject and so was not subject to the jurisdiction of a US consular court.

Decision

The Supreme Court upheld the jurisdiction of the court on the basis that having enrolled on a US ship, Ross became subject to the jurisdiction of US courts.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 140

External links

• Works related to Ross v. McIntyre at Wikisource
• Text of In re Ross, 140 U.S. 453 (1891) is available from: Justia Library of Congress