United States v. Colton Marble & Lime Co.’s Empirical Analysis
146 U.S. 615 · 1892
Citation profile
18 federal appellate · 2 district · 13 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 76 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 1987 · most notably Southern Pacific Railroad v. United States (1897), Southern Pac Co v. United States
18 federal appellate · 2 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 St Paul Co v. Northern Pac R Co
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 76 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““One thing that distinguishes the grant of 1871 to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company from most, if not all, other land grants, is the proviso, somewhat considered in the opinion in the former cases, and which reads: ‘Provided however, that this section shall in no way affect or. impair the rights, present or prospective of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, or any other railroad company.’ Carefully inserted, in a way to distinguish this grant from ordinary later and conflicting grants, it must be held that Congress meant by it to impose limitations and restrictions different from those generally imposed in such cases, and it in substance declared that the Southern Pacific Company should not in any event take lands to which any other company had at the time a present or irrespective right. As it could have no effect upon the lands within the granted limits, it must have been intended to have some effect upon those within the indemnity limits, they being the only lands upon which it could operate.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The proviso in the act of March 3, 1871, 16 Stat. 573 , c. 122, granting lands in aid of the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad company, that the grant should ‘in no way affect or impair the rights, present or prospective, of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company,’ operated to exempt the indemnity lands of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company from the grant to the Southern Pacific Company.””
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.