Market Company v. Hoffman’s Empirical Analysis
101 U.S. 112 · 1879
Citation profile
153 federal appellate · 33 district · 30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 453 later decisions (48 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Louisiana Public Service Commission v. Federal Communications Commission (1986), George Duncan Superintendent Great Meadow Correctional Facility v. Sherman Walker (2001)
153 federal appellate · 33 district · 30 state decisions — followed in 13 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 453 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A] statute ought, upon the whole, to be so construed that, if it can be prevented, no clause, sentence, or word shall be superfluous, void, or insignificant.”
33 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The case Is one of two hundred and six complainants suing jointly. Tim decree is a single one in favor of them all and in denial of the right claimed by the company, which is of far greater value than the sum which, by the act of Congress, is the limit below which an -appeal is not allowable.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““To understand the true meaning of the clause, it is necessary to observe what the subject was in regard to which Congress attempted to legislate. In Brewer’s Lessee v. Blougher, 14 Pet. 78 , 10 L. Ed. 408 , it was said to be the undoubted duty of the court to ascertain the meaning of the Legislature from words used in the statute and the subject-matter to which it relates.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.