Fergus v. Russel’s Empirical Analysis
1915
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 1 district · 166 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 178 later decisions — most recently June 2022 · most notably 153 Ill. 2d 473 - People Ex Rel. Hartigan v. E & E HAULING, INC. (1992), 34 Ill. 2d 495 - Droste v. Kerner (1966)
3 federal appellate · 1 district · 166 state decisions — followed in 29 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 Ritchie v. People · Commonwealth v. Barnett · Dahnke v. People · State ex rel. Kennedy v. Brunst · Hunt v. Chicago Horse & Dummy Railway Co.
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 178 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The Attorney General is the chief law officer of the State, and the only officer empowered to represent the people in any suit or proceeding in which the State is the real party in interest, except where the constitution or a constitutional statute may provide otherwise. With this exception, only, he is the sole official adviser of the executive officers and of all boards, commissions and departments of the State government, and it is his duty to conduct the law business of the State, both in and out of the courts.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Fusek v. State““Bills making appropriations of money out of the treasury shall specify the objects and purposes for which the same are made, and appropriate to them respectively their several amounts in distinct items and sections, and if the Governor shall not approve any one or more of the items or sections contained in any bill, but shall approve the residue thereof, it shall become a law as to the residue in like manner as if he had signed it.” (Ill. Const. 1870, art. V, sec. 16.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““During the sessions of the legislature either house may appoint separate committees, and the two houses, acting concurrently, may appoint joint committees for any proper purpose, which may exercise such powers as the house or houses appointing them may lawfully delegate or impose. The only powers which can be conferred upon and delegated to such committees are such powers as are possessed by the house or houses making the appointment.””
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.