Joseph Patsone v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Empirical Analysis
232 U.S. 138 · 1914
Citation profile
34 federal appellate · 47 district · 285 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 588 later decisions (100 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2015 · most notably McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961), Hines v. Davidowitz (1941)
34 federal appellate · 47 district · 285 state decisions — followed in 40 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 Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co. · Mugler v. State of Kansas State of Kansas Tufts · Henning Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts · Lawton v. Steele
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 588 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"[W]e start with the general consideration that a State may classify with reference to the evil to be prevented, and that if the class discriminated against is or reasonably might be considered to define those from whom the evil mainly is to be feared, it properly may be picked out. A lack of abstract symmetry does not matter. The question is a practical one dependent upon experience. * * * It is not enough to invalidate the law that others may do the same thing and go unpunished, if, as a matter of fact, it is found that the danger is characteristic of the class named. Citation omitted.) The state `may direct its law against what it deems the evil as it actually exists without covering the whole field of possible abuses.' Central Lumber Co. v. South Dakota, 226 U.S. 157, 160 , 33 S.Ct. 66 , 57 L.Ed. 164 ." (Emphasis added.)”
18 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.