Mills v. Green’s Empirical Analysis
159 U.S. 651 · 1895
Citation profile
716 federal appellate · 147 district · 476 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,074 later decisions (85 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Southern Pacific Terminal Company v. Interstate Commerce Commission (1911), Honig v. Doe (1988)
716 federal appellate · 147 district · 476 state decisions — followed in 38 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Gerling v. Baltimore Ohio R Co · The State of Pennsylvania v. The Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company et al. · California v. San Pablo & Tulare Railroad · Jones v. United States
Cited together with Church of Scientology of California v. United States · Southern Pacific Terminal Company v. Interstate Commerce Commission · United States v. Munsingwear, Inc. · Powell v. McCormack · United States v. W. T. Grant 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 2,074 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The duty of this court, as of every other judicial tribunal, is to decide actual controversies by a judgment which can be carried into effect, and not to give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare principles or rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it.””
89 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(I)f pending an appeal an event occurs which renders it impossible for the appellate court to grant any relief or renders a decision unnecessary the appeal will be dismissed.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage““The lower courts of the United States, and this court on appeal from their decisions, take judicial notice ot' the Constitution and public laws of each state of the Union.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Lane v. Sargent · Jesson v. Noyes
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.