United States v. Macintosh’s Empirical Analysis
283 U.S. 605 · 1931
Citation profile
252 federal appellate · 137 district · 94 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 789 later decisions (68 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2019 · most notably Monroe v. Pape (1961), Parker v. Levy (1974)
252 federal appellate · 137 district · 94 state decisions — followed in 21 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
reviewedMacintosh v. United States (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Rector Etc of Holy Trinity Church v. United States · Henning Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts · Selective Draft Law Cases · Davis v. Beason
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 789 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““From its very nature the war power, when necessity calls for its exercise, tolerates no qualifications or limitations, unless found in the Constitution or in applicable principles of international law. In the words of John Quincy Adams, ‘This power is tremendous; it is strictly constitutional; but it breaks down every barrier so anxiously erected for the protection of liberty, property and of life.’ To the end that war may not result in defeat, freedom of speech may, by act of Congress, be curtailed or denied so that the morale of the people and the spirit of the army may not be broken by seditious utterances; freedom of the press curtailed to preserve our military plans and movements from the knowledge of the enemy; deserters and spies put to death without indictment or trial by jury; ships and supplies requisitioned; property of alien enemies, theretofore under the protection of the Constitution, seized without process and converted to the public use without compensation and without due process of law in the ordinary sense of that term; prices of food and other necessities of life 'fixed or regulated; railways taken over and operated by the government; and other drastic powers, wholly inadmissible in time of peace, exercised to meet the emergencies of war.” (Italics ours.)”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The conscientious objector is relieved from the obligation to bear arms in obedience to no constitutional provision, express or implied; but because, and only because, it has accorded with the policy of Congress thus to relieve him.””
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1)Is at least 18 years of age; (2) Has been lawfully admitted as a permanent resident of the United States; (3) Has resided continuously within the United States, as defined under § 316.5, for a period of at least five years after having been lawfully admitted for permanent residence; (4) Has been physically present in the United States for at least 30 months of the five years preceding the date of filing the application; * X X (6) Has resided continuously within the United States from the date of application for naturalization up to the time of admission to citizenship; (7) For all relevant time periods under this paragraph, has been and continues to be a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and favorably disposed toward the good order and happiness of the United States ...”
3 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.