Sonzinsky v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
300 U.S. 506 · 1937
Citation profile
226 federal appellate · 48 district · 27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 529 later decisions (66 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961), United States v. Darby (1941)
226 federal appellate · 48 district · 27 state decisions — followed in 11 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
reviewedSonzinsky v. United States (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Flint v. Stone Tracy Co. · J. W. Hampton, Jr., & Co. v. United States · Field v. Clark · Smith v. Kansas City Title & Trust Co. · Carter v. Carter Coal Co.
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 529 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[e]very tax is in some measure regulatory,”
16 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“obviously supportable as in aid of a revenue purpose.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Inquiry into the hidden motives which may move Congress to exercise a power constitutionally conferred upon it is beyond the competency of the courts____ They will not undertake, by collateral inquiry as to the measure of the regulatory effect of a tax, to ascribe to Congress an attempt, under the guise of taxation, to exercise another power denied by the Federal Constitution____ Here the annual tax of $200 is productive of some revenue. We are not free to speculate as to the motives which moved Congress to impose it, or as to the extent to which it may operate to restrict the activities taxed. As it is not attended by an offensive regulation, and since it operates as a tax, it is within the national taxing power.”
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.