W. B. Worthen Co. v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
292 U.S. 426 · 1934
Citation profile
29 federal appellate · 43 district · 144 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 358 later decisions (33 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2021 · most notably United States Trust Company of New York v. New Jersey (1977), Lynch v. United States (1934)
29 federal appellate · 43 district · 144 state decisions — followed in 26 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 Home Building & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell · Sturges v. Crowninshield · Edwards v. Kearzey · McCullough v. Commonwealth of Virginia
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 358 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“literalism in the construction of the contract clause ... would make it destructive of the public interest by depriving the State of its prerogative of self-protection.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“no limitations as to time, amount, circumstances, or need.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“this essential reserved power of the State must be construed in harmony with the fair intent of the constitutional limitation, and that this principle preclude[s] a construction which would permit the State to adopt as its policy . . . the destruction of contracts or the denial of means to enforce them.”
2 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.