Rutherford v. Greene's heirs’s Empirical Analysis
15 U.S. 196 · 1817
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 2 district · 18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 76 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2010 · most notably In re Ayers (1887), Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois (1892)
10 federal appellate · 2 district · 18 state decisions — followed in 10 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.
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.
“shall he allotted, for, and given to, Major General Nathanael Greene, his heirs or assigns, within the bounds of the land -reserved for the use of the army, to be laid off by the aforesaid commissioners;”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Were it even true that the words ‘are hereby given’ would make the gift more explicit, which is not admitted, it surely cannot be necessary now to say that the validity of the legislative act depends in no degree on its containing the technical terms used in a conveyance. Nothing can be more apparent than the intention of the Legislature to order their commissioners to make the allotment and to give the land when allotted to Gen. Greene.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“that twenty-five thousand acres of land shall be allotted for and given to Major. General Nathaniel Greene,-”
1 later decision 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.