Presser v. State of Illinois’s Empirical Analysis
116 U.S. 252 · 1886
Citation profile
58 federal appellate · 35 district · 186 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 451 later decisions (49 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Malloy v. Hogan (1964), Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization (1939)
58 federal appellate · 35 district · 186 state decisions — followed in 35 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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.
Relationships
Relies on Gibbons v. Ogden · United States v. Cruikshank · Slaughter-House Cases the Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live · Fletcher v. Peck · Ex parte Garland
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 451 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage“The second amendment declares that [the right to bear arms] shall not be infringed; but this ... means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress. This is one of the amendments that has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government....”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage“[A] conclusive answer to the contention that [the Second Amendment] prohibits the legislation in question lies in the fact that the amendment is a limitation only upon the power of Congress and the National government, and not upon that of the States.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.