Lambert v. Yellowley’s Empirical Analysis
272 U.S. 581 · 1926
Citation profile
31 federal appellate · 15 district · 62 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 153 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Don Stenberg Attorney General of Nebraskas v. Leroy Carhart (2000), Milliken v. United States (1931)
31 federal appellate · 15 district · 62 state decisions — followed in 16 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedLambert v. Yellowley (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York · Henning Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts · Barbier v. Connolly · Dent v. State of West Virginia
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 153 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“there is no right to practice medicine which is not subordinate to the police power of the states.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“there is no right to practice medicine which is not subordinate . . . to the power of Congress to make laws necessary and proper . . . . High medical authority being in conflict as to the medicinal value of spirituous and vinous liquors taken as a beverage, it would, indeed, be strange if Congress lacked the power to determine that the necessities of the liquor problem require a limitation of permissible prescriptions. . . .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“practicing physicians differ about the value of malt, vinous, and spirituous liquors for medicinal purposes, [and] that the preponderating opinion is against their use for such purposes,”
2 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.