The Cherokee Nation v. The State of Georgia’s Empirical Analysis
30 U.S. 1 · 1831
Citation profile
241 federal appellate · 117 district · 130 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 865 later decisions (129 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Baker v. Carr (1962), McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961)
241 federal appellate · 117 district · 130 state decisions — followed in 30 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 Osborn v. President Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States · Samuel Worcester v. The State of Georgia · Fletcher v. Peck · Leavenworth Lawrence and Galveston Railroad Company 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 865 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“completely under the sovereignty and dominion of the United States.”
65 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Constitution . . . of the United States . . . and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“If it be true that the Cherokee Nation have rights, this is not the tribunal in which those rights are to be asserted. If it be true that wrongs have been inflicted, and that still greater are to be apprehended, this is not the tribunal which can redress the past or prevent the future.”
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.