Grand Trunk Western Railway Company v. Railroad Commission of Indiana’s Empirical Analysis
221 U.S. 400 · 1911
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 13 district · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 1992 · most notably Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. City of Goldsboro (1914), Louisville Nashville Railroad Company v. Green Garrett (1913)
4 federal appellate · 13 district · 17 state decisions
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 Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co. · New Orleans Water-Works Co v. Louisiana Sugar Refining Co · Chicago Co v. State of Nebraska City of Omaha · Northern Pacific Railway Co. v. Minnesota ex rel. City of Duluth · New York & New England Railroad v. Bristol
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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Observing first, that the order is a legislative act by an instrumentality of the State exercising delegated authority (Prentis v. Atlantic Coast Line Co., 211 U.S. 210, 226 [ 29 S.Ct. 67, 69 , 53 L.Ed. 150 (1908)]), is of the same force as if made by the legislature, and so is a law of the State within the meaning of the contract clause of the Constitution (New Orleans Water Works Co. v. Louisiana Sugar Refining Co., 125 U.S. 18, 31 [ 8 S.Ct. 741, 748 , 31 L.Ed. 607 (1888) ]; St. Paul Gas Light Co. v. St. Paul, 181 U.S. 142, 148 [ 21 S.Ct. 575, 577 , 45 L.Ed. 788 (1901)]; Northern Pacific Ry. Co. v. Duluth, 208 U.S. 583, 590 [ 28 S.Ct. 341, 342 , 52 L.Ed. 630 (1908)]), we come to consider whether it does impair the obligation of the contract. Obviously it does not, if the contract creates no obligation respecting the expense which the order entails.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Lerner v. Gill
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.