Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York’s Empirical Analysis
198 U.S. 45 · 1905
Citation profile
428 federal appellate · 164 district · 598 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,946 later decisions (234 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably In the Matter of Samuel Winship (1970), Roe v. Wade (1973)
428 federal appellate · 164 district · 598 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 Yick Wo v. Hopkins · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Gibbons v. Ogden · Mugler v. State of Kansas State of Kansas Tufts · Calder et Wife, v. Bull et Wife.
Cited together with Williamson v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, Inc. · West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish · Ferguson v. Skrupa · Coppage v. State · Adkins v. Children's Hospital of the District of Columbia Same
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 1,946 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a more direct relation, as a means to an end, ... before an act can be held to be valid which interferes with [freedom of contract]”
39 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he 14th Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics,”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“General propositions do not decide concrete cases.”
17 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.