Union Pac Ry Co v. Botsford’s Empirical Analysis
141 U.S. 250 · 1891
Citation profile
213 federal appellate · 95 district · 534 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,092 later decisions (44 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2025 · most notably Terry v. Ohio (1968), Roe v. Wade (1973)
213 federal appellate · 95 district · 534 state decisions — followed in 47 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 Indianapolis and St Louis Railroad Company v. Horst · Fisk · Nudd v. Burrows · Chateaugay Ore & Iron Co.
Cited together with Terry v. Ohio · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · Roe v. Wade · Meyer v. State of Nebraska · Olmstead v. United States
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 1,092 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“No right is held more sacred, or is more carefully guarded, by the common law, than the right of every individual to the possession and control of his own person, free from all restraint or interference of others, unless by clear and unquestionable authority of law.”
88 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“an indignity, an assault, and a trespass”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If he unreasonably refuses to show his injuries, when asked to do so, that fact may be considered by the jury, as bearing on his good faith, as in any other case of a party declining to produce the best evidence in his power”.”
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.