Connolly v. Union Sewer Pipe Co.’s Empirical Analysis
184 U.S. 540 · 1902
Citation profile
143 federal appellate · 109 district · 423 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,113 later decisions (121 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2001 · most notably Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co. (1911), Flint v. Stone Tracy Co. (1911)
143 federal appellate · 109 district · 423 state decisions — followed in 42 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 · Gibbons v. Ogden · Barbier v. Connolly · Gulf Ry Co v. Ellis
Cited together with Continental Wall Paper Company v. Louis Voight & Sons Company · Wilder Manufacturing Company v. Corn Products Refining Company · Gulf Ry Co v. Ellis · Bruce's Juices, Inc. v. American Can Co. · Kelly v. Kosuga
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 1,113 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[Classification] ‘must always rest upon some difference which bears a reasonable and just relation to the act in respect to which the classification is proposed, and can never be made arbitrarily and without any such basis. * * * But arbitrary selection can never be justified by calling it classification. The equal protection demanded by the fourteenth amendment forbids this. * * * No duty rests more imperatively upon the courts than the enforcement of those constitutional provisions intended to secure that equality of rights which is the foundation of - free government. * * * It is apparent that the mere fact of classification is not sufficient to relieve a statute from the reach of the equality clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that in all cases it must appear not only that a classification has been made, but also that it is one based upon some reasonable ground — some difference which bears a just and proper relation to the attempted classification- — and is not a mere arbitrary selection.’ ””
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * jf different sections of a statute are independent of each other, that which is unconstitutional may be disregarded, and valid sections may stand and be enforced. But if an obnoxious section is of such import that the other sections without it would cause results not contemplated or desired by the legislature, then the entire statute must be held inoperative.” (Italics ours.)”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The provisions of this act shall not apply to agricultural products or live •stock while iu the bands of the producer or raiser.””
5 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.