Houghton v. Payne’s Empirical Analysis
194 U.S. 88 · 1904
Citation profile
73 federal appellate · 31 district · 69 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 241 later decisions (11 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2020 · most notably United States v. Missouri Pacific Railroad (1929), Bodinson Manufacturing Co. v. California Employment Commission (1941)
73 federal appellate · 31 district · 69 state decisions — followed in 14 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on William Marbury v. James Madison · United States v. Trans-Missouri Freight Ass'n · Ex parte Jackson · Japanese Immigrant Case · Noble v. Union River Logging Railroad
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 241 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““. . . the publication must be a ‘periodical publication,’ which means, we think, that it shall not only have the feature of periodicity, but that it shall be a periodical in the ordinary meaning of the term. ... A periodical, as ordinarily understood, is a publication appearing at stated intervals, each number of which contains a variety of original articles by different authors, devoted either to general literature of [sic] some special branch of learning or to a special class of subjects. Ordinarily each number is incomplete in itself, and indicates a relation with prior to subsequent numbers of the same series. It implies a continuity of literary character, a connection between the different numbers of the series in the nature of the articles appearing in them . . . .” 194 U.S. at 96-7 , 24 S.Ct. at 592.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““But in addition to these considerations it is well settled that it is only where the language of the statute is ambiguous and susceptible of two reasonable interpretations that weight is given to the doctrine of comtempora-neous construction. U. S. v. Graham, 110 U.S. 219 , 3 S.Ct. 582 , 28 L.Ed. 126 ; U. S. v. Finnell, 185 U.S. 236 , 22 S.Ct. 633 , 46 L.Ed. 890 . Contemporaneous construction is a rule of interpretation, but -is not an absolute one. It does not preclude an inquiry by the courts as to the original correctness of such construction. A custom of the Department, however, long continued by successive officers, must yield to the positive language of the statute. As was said in the Graham Case, ‘if There were ambiguity or doubt, then such a practice, begun so early and continued so long, Hyould be in the highest degree persuasive, if not absolutely controlling, in its effect. But with the language clear and precise, and with its meaning evident, there is no room for construction, and consequently no need of anything to’ give it aid. The cases to this effect are numerous.’ ””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a periodical in the ordinary meaning of the term,”
3 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.