Stoutenburgh v. Hennick’s Empirical Analysis
129 U.S. 141 · 1889
Citation profile
39 federal appellate · 19 district · 81 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 262 later decisions (53 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2002 · most notably Addyston Pipe Steel Company v. United States (1899), Palmore v. United States (1973)
39 federal appellate · 19 district · 81 state decisions — followed in 24 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 Gibbons v. Ogden · Robbins v. Taxing District of Shelby Co Tennessee · Aaron Cooley v. The Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia to the Use of the Society for the Relief of Distressed Pilots Their Widows and Children Same · Bowman v. Chicago N W Ry Co · Leloup v. Port of Mobile
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 262 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Power to legislate for the District of Columbia is expressly delegated by the Constitution. Article I, Section 8, Clause 17, gives to Congress power ‘To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, * * (Italics supplied.) That delegation is sweeping and inclusive in character, to the end that Congress may legislate within the District for every proper purpose of government. Within the District of Columbia, there is no division of legislative powers such as exists between the federal and state governments. Instead there is a consolidation thereof, which includes within its breadth all proper powers of legislation. Subject only to those prohibitions of the Constitution which act directly or by implication upon the federal government, Congress possesses full and unlimited jurisdiction to provide for the general welfare of citizens within the District of Columbia by any and every act of legislation which it may deem conducive to that end. In fact, when it legislates for the District, Congress acts as a legislature of national character, exercising complete legislative control as contrasted with the limited power of a state legislature, on the one hand, and as contrasted with the limited sovereignty which Congress exercises within the boundaries of the states, on the other.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“It is a cardinal principle of our system of government, that local affairs shall be managed by local authorities, and general affairs by the central authority, and hence, while the rule is also fundamental that the power to make laws cannot be delegated, the creation of municipalities exercising local self-government has never been held to trench upon that rule. * * *”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Congress has express power “to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever” over the District of Columbia, thus possessing the combined powers of a general and of a State government in all cases where legislation is possible.”
2 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.