Brown v. District of Columbia’s Empirical Analysis
127 U.S. 579 · 1888
Citation profile
11 federal appellate · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 50 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 1975 · most notably United States v. Ballin (1892), District of Columbia v. Woodbury (1890)
11 federal appellate · 25 state decisions — followed in 12 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 Barnes v. District of Columbia · Gould v. Evansville and Crawfordsville Rr 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 50 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“And, as a general rule, it may be stated that not only where the corporate power •resides in a select body, as a city council, but where it has been delegated to a committee or to agents, then, in the absence of special provisions otherwise, a minority of the select body, or of the committee or agents, are powerless to bind the majority or do any valid act. If all the members of the select body or committee, or if all the agents are assembled, or if all have been duly notified, and the minority refuse or neglect to meet with the.others, a majority of those present may act, provided those present constitute a majority of the whole number. In other words, in such case, a major part of the whole is necessary to constitute a quorum, and a majority of the quorum may act. If the major'part withdraw so as to leave no quorum, the power of the minority to ac-t is; in general, considered to cease.”
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.