McLish v. Roff’s Empirical Analysis
141 U.S. 661 · 1891
Citation profile
185 federal appellate · 5 district · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 395 later decisions (113 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Will v. United States (1967), Di Bella v. United States (1962)
185 federal appellate · 5 district · 13 state decisions
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 Forgay v. Conrad · Claasen
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 395 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“that appeals or writs of error may be taken from the District Courts or from the existing Circuit Courts direct to the Supreme Court in the following cases: (1) In any case in which the”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“From the very foundation of our judicial system the object and policy of the acts of Congress in relation to appeals and writs of error ... have been to save the expense and delays of repeated appeals in the same suit, and to have the whole case and every matter in controversy in it decided in a single appeal.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““When that judgment is rendered, the party against whom it is rendered must elect whether he will take his writ of error or appeal to the Supreme Court upon the question of jurisdiction alone, or to the Circuit Court of Appeals upon the whole case. If the latter, then the Circuit Court of Appeals may, if it deem proper, certify the question to this court.””
5 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.