Atchison Co v. Matthews’s Empirical Analysis
174 U.S. 96 · 1899
Citation profile
40 federal appellate · 36 district · 258 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 507 later decisions (51 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2020 · most notably McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961), Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York (1905)
40 federal appellate · 36 district · 258 state decisions — followed in 40 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 Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Chicago Co v. City of Chicago · Calder et Wife, v. Bull et Wife. · United States v. Cruikshank · Plessy v. Ferguson
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 507 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"It is * * * a maxim of constitutional law that a legislature is presumed to have acted within constitutional limits, upon full knowledge of the facts, and with the purpose of promoting the interests of the people as a whole, and courts will not lightly hold that an act duly passed by the legislature was one in the enactment of which it has transcended its power." Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Matthews, 174 U.S. 96, 104 , 19 S.Ct. 609 , 43 L.Ed. 909 (1899).”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“based upon some difference bearing a reasonable and just relation”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Is the classification or discrimination prescribed thereby purely arbitrary or has it some basis in that which has a reasonable relation to the object sought to be accomplished?”
2 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.