United States v. Kirkpatrick’s Empirical Analysis
22 U.S. 720 · 1824
Citation profile
79 federal appellate · 44 district · 146 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 417 later decisions (48 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2024 · most notably Costello v. United States (1961), Block v. North Dakota Board of University and School Lands North Dakota Board of University and School Lands (1983)
79 federal appellate · 44 district · 146 state decisions — followed in 38 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 Commonwealth v. Baynton
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 417 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Then, as to tbe point of laches, we are of opinion that the charge of the court below, which supposes that laches will discharge the bond, cannot be maintained as law. The general principle is that laches is not imputable to the government; and this maxim is founded, not in the notion of extraordinary prerogative, but upon a great public policy. The government can transact its business only through its agents; and its fiscal operations are so various, and its agencies so numerous and scattered, that the utmost vigilance would not save the public from the most serious losses, if the doctrine of laches can be applied to its transactions. It would, in effect, work a repeal of all its securities.””
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It is certainly too late for either party to claim a right to make an appropriation after the controversy has arisen, and a fortiori at the time of the trial.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"The general principle is, that laches is not imputable to the government; ... not in the notion of extraordinary prerogatives, but upon a great public policy." U. S. v. Kirkpatrick, and others, 22 U.S. (Wheaton 9) 720, 735, 6 L.Ed. 199 (1824).”
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.