Smith v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
11 federal appellate · 292 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 330 later decisions — most recently September 2022 · most notably Federal Sign v. Texas Southern University (1997), General Services v. Little-Tex Insulation (2001)
11 federal appellate · 292 state decisions — followed in 11 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1491
Relies on William Marbury v. James Madison · Sutton v. Duke · 57 Cal. 2d 508 - Souza & McCue Construction Co. v. Superior Court · North Carolina Consumers Power, Inc. v. Duke Power Co. · Smith v. Hefner
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 330 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a]s long as a public officer lawfully exercises the judgment and discretion with which he is invested by virtue of his office, keeps within the scope of his official authority, and acts without malice or corruption[.]”
46 later decisions quote this exact passage“As to its contract, the State should be held to the same rules and principles of construction and application of contract provisions as govern private persons and corporations in contracting with each other. But ... a contract of the State must ordinarily rest upon some legislative enactment and in this respect is distinguished from contracts with individuals . . . Unless there is an appropriation, courts have no power to enforce a contract of a state, even though they do not doubt its validity.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“an appointment or election to public office does not establish contract relations between the person[s] appointed or elected and the State.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.