Totten v. United States, 92 U.S. 105 (1876), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court ruled on judicial jurisdiction in espionage cases. The court deemed an oral contract between a deceased spy and President Lincoln was unenforceable because courts cannot hear cases in disputes involving spying contracts, because it might do harm to make public the details of the enterprise and embarrass the government. Warning: template has been deprecated.
APPEAL from the Court of Claims.
Mr. Enoch Totten for the appellant.
Mr. Assistant Attorney-General Edwin B. Smith, contra.
MR. JUSTICE FIELD delivered the opinion of the court.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
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