But how are their decisions to be known?

George Comstock, the son of Serajah Comstock, a Revolutionary War soldier, was born in Williamstown, Oswego County, on August 24, 1811. At the age of 14, owing to his father’s death, Comstock had to become self-sufficient. He taught school and, through his savings, was able to attend and graduate from Union College in 1834 with high honors. After graduation, he taught in a private school in Utica, while also studying law. Then moving to Syracuse, he joined the law firm of Noxon and Leavenworth, where he practiced after his admission to the bar in 1837. In 1847 Governor Young appointed Comstock as State Reporter, making him the first Reporter formally to hold the title of State Reporter, which was created by the 1847 Judiciary Act. Comstock held this position for four years, publishing the first four volumes of the New York Reports. In 1849 he was one of the organizers of the Syracuse Savings Bank, and, in 1852, President Fillmore appointed Comstock Solicitor of the Treasury of the United States, a capacity in which he served until the end of the presidential term. In 1855 he was elected Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals, and served as Chief Judge from 1860 to 1861. Comstock’s 1856 opinion in Wynehamer v People (13 NY 378 [1856]), annulling a prohibitory liquor law, was one of his most celebrated. After leaving the Court in 1861, Judge Comstock returned to Syracuse, where he practiced for the next 30 years. At the request of Chancellor James Kent's heirs, Judge Comstock edited a new edition of Kent's Commentaries. In 1869 he was instrumental in the movement to establish Syracuse University. He was married to Cornelia Noxon. Judge Comstock died in Syracuse on September 27, 1892. (Portrait courtesy of the Court of Appeals Collection)
The eighth official Reporter of New York, and the second formally to be designated “State Reporter,” Henry Selden was born on October 14, 1805 in Lyme, Connecticut. He was the younger brother of Samuel L. Selden, who was to become Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. Selden moved to Rochesterville, New York, in the 1820s and studied law with his brother and with future Court of Appeals Judge Addison Gardiner. He was admitted to the bar at the age of 25 and moved to Clarkson, New York, before settling in Rochester. Selden became a prominent member of the Rochester community, where he was instrumental in establishing the New York Republican party and in developing a telegraph enterprise that would ultimately become Western Union. Selden replaced George Comstock as State Reporter in 1851 and continued in that capacity until 1854, publishing six volumes during his tenure. In 1856 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of the state, a position he held until 1858. When Samuel Selden retired from the Court of Appeals in 1862, Henry Selden was appointed Associate Judge. Judge Selden continued on the state’s high court until 1865, retiring due to illness. Later that year he was elected to the New York State Legislature. In 1872 Selden returned to his Rochester law practice, defending Susan B. Anthony’s right to vote in a nationally celebrated case. He was married to the former Laura Ann Baldwin, and they had 12 children. Henry Selden died on September 18, 1885 at his residence in Rochester. (Photograph courtesy of New York Red Book, Albany, N.Y.)
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