Williams v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
289 U.S. 553 · 1933
Citation profile
90 federal appellate · 26 district · 24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 363 later decisions (58 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2018 · most notably Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. (1982), United States v. Sherwood (1941)
90 federal appellate · 26 district · 24 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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 Hans v. State of Louisiana · Mondou v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad · Cohens v. Virginia · Myers v. United States · Webster v. Fall
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 363 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]his court is a court, in fact as well as in name, and ... its decisions are judicial decisions. If it were not, the Supreme Court would not review its decisions, as it does, ... And we would suppose, unless the decision in the Williams case means to the contrary, that we are no more acting as a mere agent or arm of the legislature, when we decide our cases in the first instance, than is the Supreme Court, when it, under the appellate procedure prescribed in the statute decides them finally. Each court is assigned its place in the process of doing justice between the United States and those who have claims against it. That is the major portion of this court’s assignment. It is only a small part of the Supreme Court’s assignment. But one, when it is performing that assignment must be acting judicially, if the other is.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * since Congress, whenever it thinks proper, undoubtedly may, without infringing the Constitution, confer upon an executive officer or administrative board, or an existing or specially constituted court, or retain for itself, the power to hear and determine controversies respecting claims against the United States, it follows indubitably that such power, in whatever guise or by whatever agency exercised, is no part of the judicial power vested in the constitutional courts by the third article.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Controversies to which the United States shall be a 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.