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The American Judiciary by LLD Simeon E. Baldwin
page 280 of 388 (72%)
divided in opinion as to whether they should not also be given a
place in the official ones.

It is not always easy for the court or the reporter to determine
what decision may thereafter be relied on as a precedent.
Repeated instances have occurred in which such a use has in fact
been made and properly made of some not noted in the regular
reports, and not infrequently they have subsequently been
inserted in them.[Footnote: In the centennial volume (Vol. CXXXI)
of those of the Supreme Court of the United States, one hundred
and twelve opinions are printed, the first delivered over fifty
years before, which previous reporters had thought best to omit,
and two hundred and twenty-one more such are published in
Vol. CLIV. Whoever runs them over will be apt to think that the
previous reporters were right.] There is also in case of an
opinion not to be officially reported a loss of a valuable
safeguard against unsound decisions. A judge writes with more
care and examines the points of law which may be presented more
closely if he writes for the public and for posterity.

On the whole the prevailing sentiment is that the reasons for
repressing some are stronger than those for publishing all
judicial opinions. It will be few only that, under any
circumstances, will be omitted. The leading lawyers in every
State are expected to run over, if they do not read, every case
in every new volume of its reports. Every case dropped lightens
this task. It helps to keep indexes of reports and digests of
reports and legal treatises within reasonable limits. It cuts
into an accumulating mass of material, most of which must, in any
event, so far as points of law are concerned, be a mere
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