Lawrence v. State Tax Commission’s Empirical Analysis
286 U.S. 276 · 1932
Citation profile
56 federal appellate · 12 district · 287 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 598 later decisions (133 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2020 · most notably Milliken v. Meyer (1940), Carmichael v. Southern Coal & Coke Co. (1937)
56 federal appellate · 12 district · 287 state decisions — followed in 43 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 Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co. · Royster Guano Co v. Commonwealth of Virginia · Rast v. Van Deman & Lewis Co. · Shaffer v. Carter · Greene v. Louisville & Interurban Railroad
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 598 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"* * * Domicile or residence within the state is a valid basis for the imposition of an income tax by the state. It is competent for a state to impose a tax on the income of a resident thereof, or a domestic corporation, whether such income be derived from sources within or outside the state. The enjoyment of the privileges of residence within the state and the attendant right to invoke the protection of its laws are inseparable from responsibility for sharing the costs of government, and a tax measured by the net income of residents is an equitable method of distributing the burden of government among those privileged to enjoy its benefits. The tax is founded on the protection afforded by the state to the recipient of the income in his person, in his right to receive the income, and in his enjoyment of it when received; these are rights and privileges which attach to domicile within the state and the economic advantage realized by the receipt of income and the power to control it bear a direct relationship to the rights and privileges attached to domicile and to the equitable distribution of the tax burden. Neither the privilege nor the burden is affected by the character of the -source from which the income is derived % * # 1 W”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Doubtless there may be inequalities but our courts are committed to the proposition, as stated by the Supreme Court of the United States in Lawrence v. State Tax Commission, 286 U.S. 276, 284 , 52 S.Ct. 556, 559 , 76 L.Ed. 1102 [ (1932) ], as follows: "`The equal protection clause does not require the state to maintain a rigid rule of equal taxation, to resort to close distinctions, or to maintain a precise scientific uniformity; and possible differences in tax burdens not shown to be substantial or which are based on discriminations not shown to be arbitrary or capricious, do not fall within constitutional prohibitions.'"”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“we are concerned only with its practical operation, not its definition or the precise form of descriptive words which may be applied to it.”
4 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.