State of Missouri Barrett v. Kansas Natural Gas Co Kansas Natural Gas Co’s Empirical Analysis
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 3 district · 33 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 59 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably 1 Ill. 2d 509 - Mississippi River Fuel Corp. v. Illinois Commerce Commission (1953), Railroad Com'n of Texas v. Lone Star Gas Co. (1992)
6 federal appellate · 3 district · 33 state decisions — followed in 19 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 Simpson v. Shepard · Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. State of West Virginia State of Ohio · Robbins v. Taxing District of Shelby Co Tennessee · Welton v. The State of Missouri · Brown v. Houston
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 59 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"`... If a state enactment imposes a direct burden upon interstate commerce, it must fall regardless of Federal legislation. The point of such an objection is not that Congress has acted, but that the State has directly restrained that which in the absence of Federal regulation should be free.' ... "The contention that, in the public interest, the business is one requiring regulation, need not be challenged. But Congress thus far has not seen fit to regulate it, and its silence, where it has the sole power to speak, is equivalent to a declaration that that particular commerce shall be free from regulation ..."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““But here the sale of gas is in wholesale quantities, not to consumers, but to distributing companies for resale to consumers in numerous cities and communities in different States. The transportation, sale and delivery constitute an unbroken chain, fundamentally interstate from beginning to end, and of such continuity as to amount to an established course of business.” (p. 309.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“`... If a state enactment imposes a direct burden upon interstate commerce, it must fall regardless of Federal legislation. The point of such an objection is not that Congress has acted, but that the State has directly restrained that which in the absence of Federal regulation should be free.' ...”
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.