Nixon v. Condon’s Empirical Analysis
286 U.S. 73 · 1932
Citation profile
199 federal appellate · 56 district · 69 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 573 later decisions (103 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2023 · most notably Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1971), Baker v. Carr (1962)
199 federal appellate · 56 district · 69 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
reviewedNixon v. Condon (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Cruikshank · Strauder v. West Virginia · Ex parte Virginia · Buchanan v. Warley · Virginia v. Rives
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 573 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The test is whether they are to be classified as representatives of the state to such an extent and in such a sense that the great restraints of the Constitution set limits to their action. “With the problem thus laid bare and its essentials exposed to view, the case is seen to be ruled by Nixon v. Herndon, supra [ 273 U.S. 536 , 47 S.Ct. 446 , 71 L.Ed. 759 ], Delegates of the State’s power have discharged their official functions in such a way as to discriminate invidiously between white citizens and black. Ex parte Virginia, supra [ 100 U.S. 339 , 25 L.Ed. 676 ]; Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60, 77 , 38 S.Ct. 16 , 62 L.Ed. 149 . The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted as it was with special solicitude for the equal protection of members of the Negro race, lays a duty upon the court to level by its judgment these barriers of color.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“are not acting in matters of merely private concern like the directors or agents of business corporations. They are acting in matters of high public interest, matters intimately connected with the capacity of government to exercise its functions unbrokenly and smoothly.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“qualified to vote or otherwise participate in such political party.”
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.