I just ran across an interesting 1818 case — a prosecution of Robert C. Murray, which might have been one of the earliest blasphemy opinions in the U.S., and a worthy addition to the classic Ruggles / Updegraph / Kneeland troika that is often cited on such matters. (Murray followed Ruggles but preceded the other two.) I can have it typed in and posted, but I’d like to make it as available as possible to other researches. And I’ve found the same with regard to other cases that aren’t available on the various computerized databases, whether because they were only published in newspapers (such as this case) or in the few reporter volumes that aren’t yet on Westlaw.
Are there any repositories for such cases that some law schools or other organizations operate? Have any of you had success with getting Westlaw and Lexis to add such cases to their collections? Is the best bet to see whether some journal might publish them? Or do you have any other suggestions? Thanks!
UPDATE: Thanks to the commenters who pointed out that I should also post somewhere the PDF of the original pages, for those who want to check the originals. I’ll do that, unless they’re already available at some database (such as America’s Historical Newspapers) that is generally accessible to university libraries (even if only by a subscription that most major universities have).