United States v. Butler’s Empirical Analysis
297 U.S. 1 · 1936
Citation profile
526 federal appellate · 149 district · 284 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,616 later decisions (155 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Furman v. Georgia (1972)
526 federal appellate · 149 district · 284 state decisions — followed in 36 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
reviewedButler v. United States (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Massachusetts v. Mellon · Gibbons v. Ogden · Ala Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States · Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan
Cited together with Chas Steward Mach Co v. Davis · South Dakota v. Dole · Helvering v. Davis · Anniston Mfg Co v. Davis · Ala Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States
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 1,616 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“These words cannot be meaningless, else they would not have been used.”
43 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the only check upon our own exercise of power is our own sense of self-restraint.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“If the spending power is to be limited only by Congress’ notion of the general welfare, the reality, given the vast financial resources of the Federal Government, is that the Spending Clause gives “power to the Congress to tear down the barriers, to invade the states’ jurisdiction, and to become a parliament of the whole people, subject to no restrictions save such as are self-imposed.” This, of course, ... was not the Framers’ plan and it is not the meaning of the Spending Clause.”
9 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.