Aetna Life Ins Co of Hartford Conn v. Haworth’s Empirical Analysis
300 U.S. 227 · 1937
Citation profile
1,926 federal appellate · 942 district · 514 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6,465 later decisions (188 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Allen v. Wright (1984)
1,926 federal appellate · 942 district · 514 state decisions — followed in 43 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
reviewedÆtna Life Ins. v. Haworth (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority · Massachusetts v. Mellon · Kline v. Burke Construction Co. · Osborn v. President Directors and Company of the Bank of the United States
Cited together with Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal & Oil Co. · Public Serv. Comm'n of Utah v. Wycoff Co. · Skelly Oil Co. v. Phillips Petroleum Co. · Flast v. Cohen · Baker v. Carr
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 6,465 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a real and substantial controversy admitting of specific relief through a decree of a conclusive character, as distinguished from an opinion advising what the law would be upon a hypothetical state of facts.”
354 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In a case of actual controversy within its jurisdiction, ... any court of the United States, upon the filing of an appropriate pleading, may declare the rights and other legal relations of any interested party seeking such declaration, whether or not further relief is or could be sought.”
53 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“an adjudication of present right upon established facts.”
15 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.