Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company v. State of Georgia’s Empirical Analysis
234 U.S. 280 · 1914
Citation profile
15 federal appellate · 23 district · 76 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 230 later decisions (41 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2022 · most notably Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen (1917), Carmichael v. Southern Coal & Coke Co. (1937)
15 federal appellate · 23 district · 76 state decisions — followed in 20 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. · Munn v. Illinois · Mondou v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad · Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York
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 230 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“it does not appear ... either that Congress has acted, or that the Commission, under the authority of Congress, has established any regulation so far as headlights are concerned”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“none of these acts provides regulations for locomotive headlights.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If there is a conflict in such local regulations, by which interstate commerce may be inconvenienced, — • if there appears to be need of standardization of safety appliances, and of providing rules of operation which will govern the entire interstate road, irrespective of state boundaries, — there is a simple remedy; and it cannot be assumed that it will not be readily applied if there be real occasion for it. That remedy does not rest in a denial to the state, in the absence of conflicting Federal action, of its power to protect life and property within its borders, but it does lie in the exercise of the paramount authority of Congress, in its control of interstate commerce, to establish such regulations as, in its judgment, may be deemed appropriate and sufficient. Congress, when it pleases, may give the rule and make the standard to be observed on the interstate highway.””
1 later decision 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.