Smallwood v. Gallardo’s Empirical Analysis
275 U.S. 56 · 1927
Citation profile
51 federal appellate · 42 district · 44 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 243 later decisions (24 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025 · most notably Landgraf v. USI Film Products (1994), Lockerty v. Phillips (1943)
51 federal appellate · 42 district · 44 state decisions — followed in 12 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
reviewedGallardo v. Porto Rico Ry., Light & Power Co. (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Truax v. Corrigan · Hill v. Wallace · Fauntleroy v. Lum · Pritchard Ex'X v. Norton · Hallowell v. Commons
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 243 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“it does not matter that these cases had gone to a higher court. When the root is cut the branches fall.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"To maintain a suit is to uphold, continue on foot and keep from collapse a suit already begun."”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“"That no suit for the purpose of restraining the assessment or collection of any tax imposed by the laws of Porto [sic] Rico shall be maintained in the district court of the United States for Porto [sic] Rico."”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.