Mugler v. State of Kansas State of Kansas Tufts’s Empirical Analysis
123 U.S. 623 · 1887
Citation profile
240 federal appellate · 148 district · 1,182 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,341 later decisions (217 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025 · most notably Meyer v. State of Nebraska (1923), Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City (1978)
240 federal appellate · 148 district · 1,182 state decisions — followed in 50 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.
Relationships
Relies on Boyd v. United States · William Marbury v. James Madison · Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Gibbons v. Ogden
Cited together with Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon · Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City · Goldblatt v. Town of Hempstead · Hadacheck v. Sebastian · Village of Euclid Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co
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 2,341 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]f, in the judgment of the legislature, the manufacture of intoxicating liquors for the maker's own use, as a beverage, would tend to cripple, if it did not defeat, the effort to guard the community against the evils attending the excessive use of such liquors, it is not for the courts, upon their views as to what is best and safest for the community, to disregard the legislative determination of that question.”
49 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Leisy v. Hardin · In re Rapier“A prohibition simply upon the use of property for purposes that are declared, by valid legislation, to be injurious to the health, morals, or safety of the community, cannot in any just sense, be deemed a taking or an appropriation of property for the public benefit.”
49 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“can, not only prevent nuisances that are threatened, and before irreparable mischief ensues, but arrest or abate those in progress . . ..”
13 later decisions 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.