Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co.’s Empirical Analysis
211 U.S. 210 · 1908
Citation profile
302 federal appellate · 206 district · 464 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,673 later decisions (200 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2025 · most notably District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman (1983), Burford v. Sun Oil Co. (1943)
302 federal appellate · 206 district · 464 state decisions — followed in 47 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 Ex Parte: Edward T Young · William Marbury v. James Madison · Pennoyer v. Neff · Hurtado v. People of the State of California · Hilton v. Guyot
Cited together with Younger v. Harris · District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman · Bacon v. Rutland Railroad · Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co. · Middlesex County Ethics Committee v. Garden State Bar Ass'n
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 1,673 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“investigates, declares and enforces liabilities as they stand on present or past facts and under laws supposed already to exist.”
100 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““And all that we have said would be equally true if an appeal had been taken to the Supreme Court of Appeals and it had confirmed the rate. Its .action in doing so would not have been judicial, although the questions debated by it might have been the same that might come before it as a court, ¿nd would have been discussed and passed upon by it in the same way that it would deal with them if they arose afterwards in a case properly so called. We gather that these are the views of the Supreme Court of Appeals itself. Atlantic Coast Line Ry. Co. v. Commonwealth, 102 Va. 599 , 621 [ 46 S. E. 911 ]. They are implied in many cases in this and other United States courts in which the enforcement of rates has been enjoined, notwithstanding notice and hearing, and what counsel in this case call litigation in advance. Legislation cannot bolster itself up in that way. Litigation cannot arise until the moment of legislation has past.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he determination as to their rights turns almost wholly upon the facts to be found. . . . When those are settled the law is tolerably plain. All their constitutional rights we repeat, depend upon what the facts are found to be. They are not to be forbidden to try those facts before a court of their own choosing, if otherwise competent.”
4 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.