Richard Peters
Richard Peters, Jr. (August 17, 1780-May 2, 1848) was the fourth reporter of decisions of the United States Supreme Court, serving from 1828 to 1843.
He was born in Belmont, Pennsylvania. When he took the post, he condensed the reports of his three predecessors, eliminating the arguments of counsel, annotations, and other material, thus reducing twenty-four volumes into six. His immediate predecessor, Henry Wheaton, sued and thus produced a landmark case in American copyright law, Wheaton v. Peters. The Court dismissed Peters in 1843 because of the questionable "accuracy and fidelity" of his reports and having offended several of the justices. He died in Belmont, Pennsylvania.
