Helvering v. Davis’s Empirical Analysis
301 U.S. 619 · 1937
Citation profile
289 federal appellate · 106 district · 141 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 940 later decisions (96 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Dandridge v. Williams (1970)
289 federal appellate · 106 district · 141 state decisions — followed in 25 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
reviewedthe decision below (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1001 (§ 801 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1002 (§ 802 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1004 (§ 804 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1007 (§ 807 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1011 (§ 811 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1101 (§ 901 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1303 (§ 1103 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 301 (§ 1 of the Social Security Act of 1935)
Relies on Home Building & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell · United States v. Butler · Chas Steward Mach Co v. Davis · Edye v. Robertson
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 940 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“not confided to the courts. The discretion belongs to Congress, unless the choice is clearly wrong, a display of arbitrary power, not an exercise of judgment.”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“supra [ 301 U.S. 548 , 57 S.Ct. 883 , 81 L.Ed.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Canfield v. Ewing
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.