Willcuts v. Bunn’s Empirical Analysis
282 U.S. 216 · 1931
Citation profile
105 federal appellate · 27 district · 73 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 434 later decisions (102 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2024 · most notably James v. Dravo Contracting Co. (1937), United States v. Stewart (1940)
105 federal appellate · 27 district · 73 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad · Brown v. Maryland · Metcalf & Eddy v. Mitchell · Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust 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 434 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The power to tax is no less essential than the power to borrow money, and, in preserving the latter, it is not necessary to cripple the former by extending the constitutional exemption from taxation to those subjects which fall within the general application of non-discriminatory laws, and where no direct burden is laid xxpon the governmental instrumentality, and there is only a remote, if any, influence upon the exercise of the functions of government. * * * ” (At page 225 of 282 U. S., 51 S. Ct. 125, 127.) “ * * Before the power of the Congress to lay the excise tax in question can be denied in the view that it imposes a burden upon the States’ borrowing power, it must appear that the burden is real, not imaginary; substantial, not negligible. * * “ ” At page 234 of 282 U. S., 51 S. Ct. 125, 130.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The history of income tax legislation is persuasive, if not controlling, upon the question of practical effect. Plummer v. Coler, [ 178 U.S. 115, 137-138 , 20 S.Ct. 829, 837-838 , 44 L.Ed. 998 (1900)]. * * * Before the power of Congress to lay the excise tax in question can be denied in the view that it imposes a burden upon the States’ borrowing power, it must appear that the burden is real, not imaginary; substantial, not negligible. We find no basis for that conclusion, or any warrant for implying a constitutional restriction to defeat the tax.” Willcuts v. Bunn, 282 U.S. 216, 234 , 51 S.Ct. 125, 130 , 75 L.Ed. 304 (1931).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“it does not follow, because a tax on the interest payable on state and municipal bonds is a tax on the bonds and therefore forbidden, that Congress cannot impose a non-discriminatory excise tax upon the profits derived from the sale of such bonds. The sale of the bonds by their owners, after they have been issued by the State or municipality, is a transaction distinct from the contracts made by the government in the bonds themselves, and the profit on such sales are in a different category of income from that of the interest payable on the bonds. Because the tax in question is described as an “income tax” and the profits on sales are included in “income,” the distinction is not lost between the nature of a tax applied to interest and that of a tax applied to gains from sales.”
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.