Alexander Shirras, John Black, William Milligan, William Blacklock and Joseph Verrees brought a case against John Caig and Robert Mitchel in the United States Supreme Court. The plaintiffs alleged that they had been illegally arrested by the defendants while on board their vessel at sea. They argued that this violated their rights under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution which protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause or a warrant. The court found in favor of the plaintiffs ruling that it was unconstitutional for officers to arrest individuals without proper authority or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. This decision established an important precedent protecting citizens’ right to be free from arbitrary arrests by government officials as guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment.

In the dissenting opinion of Alexander Shirras, John Black, William Milligan, William Blacklock and Joseph Verrees v. John Caig & Robert Mitchel case, Justice Story argued that the decision made by the Circuit Court should be reversed because it was based on a misinterpretation of an act passed in 1790 which granted exclusive jurisdiction to federal courts over cases involving foreign citizens. He further argued that since this particular case involved two British subjects who were suing each other for damages caused by their respective ships colliding with each other while at sea, then it fell under admiralty law and thus should have been heard in federal court rather than state court as had been done previously. In conclusion he stated that if Congress intended for such matters to be handled exclusively by state courts then they would have explicitly said so when passing the aforementioned act back in 1790.