Heath v. Wallace’s Empirical Analysis
138 U.S. 573 · 1891
Citation profile
56 federal appellate · 11 district · 42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 168 later decisions (28 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Ass'n (1897), United States v. Ju Toy (1905)
56 federal appellate · 11 district · 42 state decisions — followed in 19 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 St.louis Smelting and Refining Company v. Kemp. · Jones v. United States · Johnson v. Towsley · Steel v. St Louis Smelting Refining · Cragin v. Powell
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 168 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is settled by an unbroken line of decisions of this court in land jurisprudence that the decisions of that department upofl matters of fact within its jurisdiction are, in the absence of fraud or imposition, conclusive and binding on the courts of the country.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“the question whether or not lands returned as ‘ subject to periodical overflow ’ are ‘ swamp and overflowed lands ’ is a question of fact properly determinable by the Land Department.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.