Plessy v. Ferguson’s Empirical Analysis
163 U.S. 537 · 1896
Citation profile
477 federal appellate · 141 district · 420 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,810 later decisions (215 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center (1985), Elrod v. Burns (1976)
477 federal appellate · 141 district · 420 state decisions — followed in 41 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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 Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Strauder v. West Virginia · Civil Rights Cases · Slaughter-House Cases the Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live
Cited together with Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Brown v. Board of Education · Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education · Green v. County School Board of New Kent County · Sweatt v. Painter
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 1,810 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[o]ur Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,”
43 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“had removed the race line from our governmental systems.”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“within the competency of the state legislatures,”
15 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.