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1 Introduction Paul Finkelman This book examines the history of a single federal court—the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. This is not a comprehensive, dayto -day or year-to-year history of the court. Nor is it a collection of biographies of the many judges who have served on it. Rather, we have chosen to examine a series of cases and topics that illustrate the nature of the court and the wideranging work it does. Some chapters focus on famous cases that began in the district court and went on to the Supreme Court—such as the World War I prosecution of the socialist leader Eugene Victor Debs. Other chapters center on equally famous cases and the events surrounding them that never went beyond this court, including the prosecution of scores of abolitionists after the OberlinWellington fugitive slave rescue and the litigation following the shooting of students by the Ohio National Guard on the Kent State University campus in 1970. In addition to essays on great cases and historic events, the authors of these chapters analyze topics and themes such as the role of this district court in fighting political corruption, protecting the environment, or sorting out incredibly complicated social issues, including school desegregation and the relationship of religion to the government under the First Amendment. Paul Finkelman 2 Congress established Ohio’s first federal district court on February 19, 1803.1 Initially, the court met in Chillicothe, but in 1820, it moved to Columbus when that city became the state capital.2 In its first fifty years of statehood, Ohio grew at an astounding pace. In 1800, there were only about 42,000 settlers in what would become Ohio. The first census after statehood found some 231, 000 people in the state. By 1830, Ohio’s population had grown to about 938,000, and in the next twenty years, the state would more than double to 1,980,000 in 1850. On the eve of the Civil War, Ohio was the nation’s third-largest state, with a population of about 2,340,000. The growth in northern Ohio was particularly dramatic in the four decades leading to the Civil War. For example, in 1820, Cleveland was a mere village, with a population of 600. With an astounding growth of 7,100 percent over the next forty years, the city had more than 43,000 people by 1860. Cincinnati remained the largest city in the state, with just over 160,000 people, but its rate of growth had slowed, especially in contrast to northern Ohio. In 1830, Cincinnati was about twenty times the size of Cleveland; by 1860, its population was a little more than three times Cleveland’s. Cincinnati was the nation’s sixth-largest city in 1850, but that is where it peaked. By 1920, it would drop to sixteenth, well below Cleveland. Congress could not, of course, have known this outcome in 1855, but it was clear northern Ohio was the focus of the state’s growth and thus the region needed its own federal court. The rapid growth of Cleveland, as well as the emergence of other northern Ohio cities such as Akron, Canton, Toledo, and Youngstown, led to increased legal business in the region. The expansion of Great Lakes shipping meant even more legal business for northern Ohio. Shipping led to admiralty disputes, which often required speedy access to courts. The presence of a federal court in northern Ohio seemed essential to the growing business, lake commerce, and population of that part of the state. On February 10, 1855, Congress recognized these changing needs by creating two separate district courts in the state. The existing court moved to Cincinnati and was now called the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio; the new court—the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio—would meet in Cleveland.3 Thus, the history of this court begins in the 1850s. However, before turning to that history, it is important to explore the origin and role of federal districts courts in American society. Federal district courts have played a complicated role in American history. Before the modern era, they were often the embodiment of the national government at the local level. Until the Civil War, there was very little federal presence Introduction 3 in most communities, and the majority of Americans rarely encountered a federal official other than the postmaster. In port cities—such as...

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