Packer v. Bird’s Empirical Analysis
137 U.S. 661 · 1891
Citation profile
54 federal appellate · 25 district · 76 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 292 later decisions (80 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Montana v. United States (1981), Oneida Indian Nation of New York State v. County of Oneida New York (1974)
54 federal appellate · 25 district · 76 state decisions — followed in 17 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 The Daniel Ball · John Pollard et al. v. John Hagan et al. · The Propeller Genesee Chief Pierce Kelsey Cheney Hunter Swan Clark Strong v. Fitzhugh Littlejohn Peck · Barney v. Keokuk · Merrit Martin v. William C Waddell
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 292 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The courts of the United States will construe the grants of the general government without reference to the rules of construction adopted by the states for their grants; but whatever incidents or rights attach to the ownership of property conveyed by the government will be determined by the states, subject to the condition that their rules do not impair the efficacy of the grants or the use and enjoyment of the property by the grantee.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is, indeed, the susceptibility to use as highways of commerce which gives sanction to the public right of control over navigation upon [navigable waterways], and consequently to the exclusion of private ownership, either of the waters or the soils under them.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“unless the claim confirmed in terms embraces the land under the waters of the stream,”
3 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.