M'Culloch v. State of Maryland’s Empirical Analysis
17 U.S. 316 · 1819
Citation profile
954 federal appellate · 399 district · 1,176 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,492 later decisions (732 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York (1978), Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. (1970)
954 federal appellate · 399 district · 1,176 state decisions — followed in 50 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 the Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon Others · Hepburn v. Griswold · Montague v. Richardson
Cited together with Gibbons v. Ogden · Osborn v. President Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States · Metcalf & Eddy v. Mitchell · United States v. Darby · Plowden Weston v. The City Council of Charleston
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 4,492 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Let the end be legitimate, let it be within the scope of the constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the letter and spirit of the constitution, are constitutional.”
261 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the power to tax involves the power to destroy,”
113 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is a seminal principle of our law 'that the constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are supreme; that they control the constitution and laws of the respective States, and cannot be controlled by them.'”
29 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.