Puerto Rico v. Shell Co.’s Empirical Analysis
302 U.S. 253 · 1937
Citation profile
277 federal appellate · 105 district · 44 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 765 later decisions (84 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2020 · most notably Maine v. Thiboutot (1980), Bartkus v. People of State of Illinois (1959)
277 federal appellate · 105 district · 44 state decisions — followed in 15 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
reviewedPeople v. Shell Co. (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Cohens v. Virginia · Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward · Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United States · Humphrey's Ex'r v. United States · Cohens v. Virginia
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 765 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“and the circumstances under which the words were employed.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“having 'many of the attributes of quasi sovereignty possessed by the states' ... could not be sued except to the extent that each consented to be sued, by appropriate legislation of its respective legislative body.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“creations emanating from the same sovereignty”
5 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.