Allgeyer v. State of Louisiana’s Empirical Analysis
165 U.S. 578 · 1897
Citation profile
113 federal appellate · 74 district · 429 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,053 later decisions (160 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Meyer v. State of Nebraska (1923), Washington v. Glucksberg (1997)
113 federal appellate · 74 district · 429 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 Hooper v. People of State of California · Powell v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania · Butchers' Union Slaughter-House Live-Stock Landing Co v. Crescent Slaughter-House Co · Fourth Street Bank v. Yardley
Cited together with Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York · Meyer v. State of Nebraska · St Louis Cotton Compress Co v. State of Arkansas · Adair v. United States · Butchers' Union Slaughter-House Live-Stock Landing Co v. Crescent Slaughter-House 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 1,053 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * The `liberty' mentioned in that amendment means, not only the right of the citizen to be free from the mere physical restraint of his person, as by incarceration, but the term is deemed to embrace the right of the citizen to be free in the enjoyment of all his faculties; to be free to use them in all lawful ways; to live and work where he will; to earn his livelihood by any lawful calling; to pursue any livelihood or avocation and for that purpose to enter into all contracts which may be proper, necessary, and essential to his carrying out to a successful conclusion the purposes above mentioned.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Williams v. Fears · Lottery Case“`a large ingredient in the civil liberty of the citizen'”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In the privilege of pursuing an ordinary calling or trade and of acquiring, holding, and selling property must be embraced the right to make all proper contracts in relation thereto, and although it may be conceded that this right to contract in relation to persons or property or to do business within the jurisdiction of the state may be regulated and sometimes prohibited when the contracts or business conflict with- the policy of the state as con- ■ tained in the statutes, yet the power does not and cannot extend to prohibiting the citizen from making contracts of the nature involved in this case outside of the limits and jurisdiction of the state, and which are also to be performed out-side of such jurisdiction; nor can the state legally prohibit its citizens from doing such an act as writing this letter of notification, even though the property which is the subject of the insurance may at the time when such insurance attaches be within the limits of the state. The mere fact that a citizen may be within the limits of a particular state does not prevent his making a contract outside its limits while he himself remains within it, Milliken v. Pratt, 125 Mass. 374 [ 28 Am. Rep. 241 ]; Tildon v. Blair, 88 U. S. 21 Wall. 241 [22:632]. .”
6 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.