Bank of the United States v. Planters' Bank’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

58 federal appellate · 43 district · 44 state decisions

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 270 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is, we think, a sound principle, that when a government becomes a partner in any trading company, it divests itself, so far as concerns the transactions of that company, of its sovereign character, and takes that of a private citizen. Instead of communicating to the company its privileges and its prerogatives, it descends to a level with those with whom it associates itself, and takes the character which belongs to its associates, and to the business which is to be transacted.”

   27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Alfred Dunhill of London, Inc. v. Republic of Cuba · Lebron v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation

2. ““It does not sue, because the defendant is a citizen of a different state from any of its members, but because its charter confers upon it the right of suing its debtors in a Circuit Court of the United States. If the bank could not sue a person who was a citizen of the same state with any one of its members, in the Circuit Court, this disability would defeat the power. There is, probably, not a commercial state in the Union, some of whose citizens are not members of the Bank of the United States. There is, consequently, scarcely a debt due to the bank, for which a suit could be maintained in a federal court, did the jurisdiction of the court depend on citizenship. A general power to sue in any Circuit Court of the United States, expressed in terms obviously intended to comprehend every case, would thus be construed to comprehend no ease. Sueh construction cannot be the correct one.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Federal Reserve Bank v. Webster

3. ““Is the state of Georgia a party defendant in tbis case? If it is, then the suit, had the Eleventh Amendment never been adopted, must have been brought in the Supreme Court of the United States. Could this court have entertained jurisdiction in the case? We think it could not. To have given the Supreme Court original jurisdiction, the state must be plaintiff or defendant, as a state, and must, as a state, be a party on the record. A suit against the Planters’ Bank of Georgia is no more a suit against the state of Georgia, than against any other individual corporator. The state is not a party, that is, an entire party, in the cause.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Providence Engineering Corp. v. Downey Shipbuilding Corp.