Sprout v. City of South Bend’s Empirical Analysis
277 U.S. 163 · 1928
Citation profile
42 federal appellate · 50 district · 188 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 488 later decisions (140 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2023 · most notably Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority (1936), Barrows v. Jackson (1953)
42 federal appellate · 50 district · 188 state decisions — followed in 35 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 Hess v. Pawloski · John Hendrick v. State of Maryland · Frank Kane v. State of New Jersey · Packard v. Banton · Buck v. Kuykendall
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 488 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““A state may, by appropriate legislation, require payment of an occupation tax from one engaged in both intrastate and interstate commerce. * * * And it may delegate a part of that power to a municipality. * * * But in order that the fee or tax shall be valid, it must appear that it is imposed solely on account of the intrastate business; that the amount exacted is not increased because of the interstate business done; that one engaged exclusively in interstate commerce would not be subject to the imposition; and that the person taxed could discontinue the intrastate business -without withdráAving also from the interstate business.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“flat tax, substantial in amount and the same for busses plying the streets continuously in local service and for busses making, as do many interstate busses, only a single trip daily”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In the absence of applicable federal regulation, a State may impose non-discriminatory regulations on those engaged in foreign commerce ‘for the purpose of insuring the public safety and convenience; * * * a license fee no larger in amount than is reasonably required to defray the expense of administering the regulations may be demanded.’ ””
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.