Commonwealth v. Luzik’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently February 2026 · most notably BOARD OF ED. OF BALTIMORE CTY. v. Zimmer-Rubert (2009), Alliance v. Com., Dept. of Environ. Quality (2005)
5 federal appellate · 26 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
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 201 (American Samoa Labor Standards Amendments of 1956) · 29 U.S.C. § 203
Relies on Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida · Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority · John Aldens v. Maine · Lockheed Information Management Systems Co. v. Maximus, Inc. · SEARLES'ADM'R v. Gordon's Adm'r
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“This proposition ignores the basis underpinning the Commonwealth’s assertion of sovereign immunity in this case. As the Commonwealth notes, the plea in bar was advanced in order to exercise the Commonwealth’s prerogative not to be subject to suit in her own courts pursuant to an act of Congress. The issue is not one of the avoidance of a just contract debt, but of the preservation of a right reserved to the states by the United States Constitution. We see no reason to vitiate that right by a broad and unwarranted interpretation of the legislative intent behind the limited waiver of sovereign immunity [for contract debts], and nothing in our cases interpreting that statute suggests that it should be applied in circumstances other than in claims properly instituted under that statute and the scheme provided for pursuing such claims____”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[O]nly the legislature acting in its policy-making capacity can abrogate the Commonwealth's sovereign immunity.”
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.