Shotwell v. Moore’s Empirical Analysis
129 U.S. 590 · 1889
Citation profile
12 federal appellate · 3 district · 32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 66 later decisions (9 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2001 · most notably United States v. Alabama (1941), Scottish Union & National Insurance v. Bowland (1905)
12 federal appellate · 3 district · 32 state decisions — followed in 15 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 M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Plowden Weston v. The City Council of Charleston · Witherspoon v. Duncan · The People of New York on the Relation of the Bank of Commerce v. The Commissioners of Taxes for the City and County of New York · Bank Tax Case
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 66 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is to be conceded that a State may make the ownership of property subject to taxation relate to any day, or days, or period of the year, it may think proper, and that the selection of a particular day on which returns are to be made by taxpayers of their property for the purposes of assessment does not necessarily preclude the making of assessments as of other periods of the year. The State of Ohio, like many and perhaps most of the other States, collects from the business and property subject to taxation for the year preceding the specified date, the elements of an assessment of a tax to be paid by the taxpayer for the year succeeding that date, and it has in several instances recognized the fact that an assessment which assumed that all property should only be assessed to those who were the owners of it on the precise date named was not a just apportionment. Assessments of land are made once in ten years, with such additions every year as the value of improvements justifies. So in the case of merchants engaged in buying and selling goods, the stock on hand on that day might be either the largest or the smallest of any period during the year preceding. If it were either, a tax intended to be governed by the amount of property owned or held by them during such year would be evidently unjust either to them or to the State. “To avoid this evil the statute in Ohio provides for the ascertainment of the monthly average amount or value of the property or goods in which such par”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“We think the decision in this case was correct. United States notes are exempt from taxation by or under State or municipal authority; but a court of equity will not knowingly use its extraordinary powers to promote any such scheme as this plaintiff devised to escape his proportionate share of the burdens of taxation. His remedy, if he has any, is in a court of law.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * the courts look upon this transaction as indefensible, and consider it an improper evasion of the duty of the citizen to pay his share of the taxes necessary to support the Government which is justly due on his property.”
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.