Hopkins v. Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina’s Empirical Analysis
221 U.S. 636 · 1911
Citation profile
124 federal appellate · 59 district · 114 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 492 later decisions (45 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman (1984), Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corp. (1949)
124 federal appellate · 59 district · 114 state decisions — followed in 25 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 · Hans v. State of Louisiana · Chicago Co v. City of Chicago · Smyth v. Ames · United States v. Lee
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 492 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““But immunity from suit is a high attribute of sovereignty, — a prerogative of the state itself, — which cannot be availed of by public agents when sued for their own torts. The 11th Amendment was not intended to afford them freedom from liability in any case where, under color of their office, they have injured one of the state’s citizens. To grant them such immunity would be to create a privileged class, free from liability for wrongs inflicted or injuries threatened. Public agents must be liable to the law, unless they are to be put above the law * * *. Commissions have been enjoined from enforcing confiscatory rates. * * * Commissions have been restrained from enforcing a statute which illegally burdened interstate commerce. * * * Other cases might be cited which deny public boards, agents, and officers immunity from suit, [cited cases omitted]”. 221 U.S. 641 , 644, 645, 31 S.Ct. 654 , 656.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““And, looking through form to substance, the Eleventh Amendment has been held to apply, not only where the state is actually named as a party defendant on the record, but where the proceeding, though nominally against an officer, is really against the state, or is one to which it is an indispensable party. No suit, therefore, can be maintained against a public officer which seeks to compel him to exercise the state’s power of taxation, or to pay out its money in his possession on the state’s obligations, or to execute a contract, or to do any affirmative act which affects the state’s political or property rights.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““[Njeither public corporations nor political subdivisions are clothed with the immunity from suit which belongs to the State alone by virtue of its sovereignty.””
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.