In re Debs’s Empirical Analysis
158 U.S. 564 · 1895
Citation profile
333 federal appellate · 130 district · 267 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,231 later decisions (135 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2024 · most notably Ex Parte: Edward T Young (1908), Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills of Ala. (1957)
333 federal appellate · 130 district · 267 state decisions — followed in 44 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 Boyd v. United States · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Gibbons v. Ogden · Mugler v. State of Kansas State of Kansas Tufts · Logan v. United States
Cited together with Tioga Co v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania New York L E · United States v. San Jacinto Tin Co. · Gompers v. United States · United States v. Shipp · United States v. United Mine Workers of America
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 1,231 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The complaint made against them in this is of disobedience to an order of a civil court, made for the protection of property and the security of rights.” In re Debs, 158 U. S. 565 , 594, 15 Sup. Ct. 900 , 39 L. Ed. 1092 . “In brief, a court, enforcing obedience to its orders by proceedings for contempt, is not executing the criminal laws of the land, but only securing, to suitors the rights which it has adjudged them entitled to.” 158 U. S. 596 , 15 Sup. Ct. 911 ( 39 L. Ed. 1092 ).”
54 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Every government, entrusted, by the very terms of its being, with powers and duties to be exercised and discharged for the general welfare, has a right to apply to its own courts for any proper assistance in the exercise of the one and the discharge of the other, and it is: no sufficient answer to its appeal to one of those courts; that it has no pecuniary interest in the matter. The obligations which it is under to promote the interest of all, and to prevent the wrongdoing of one resulting in injury to the general welfare, is often of itself sufficient to give it a standing in court.” Page 584 ( 15 S. Ct. 906 ). “ * * • Whenever the wrongs complained of are such as affect the public at large, and are in respect of matters which by the Constitution are entrusted to the care of the nation, and concerning which the nation owes the duty to all the citizens of securing to them their common rights, then the mere fact that the government has no pecuniary interest in the controversy is not sufficient to exclude it from the courts, or prevent it from taking measures therein to fully discharge those constitutional duties.” Page 586 ( 15 S. Ct. 907 ).”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“are entrusted to the care of the nation.”
10 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.