Dodge v. Board of Education’s Empirical Analysis
302 U.S. 74 · 1937
Citation profile
95 federal appellate · 63 district · 286 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 640 later decisions (20 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Weaver v. Graham (1981), United States Trust Company of New York v. New Jersey (1977)
95 federal appellate · 63 district · 286 state decisions — followed in 38 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 Lynch v. United States · Wisconsin & Michigan Railway Co. v. Powers · Pennie v. Reis · Crenshew 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 640 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]bsent some clear indication that the legislature intends to bind itself contractually, the presumption is that "a law is not intended to create private contractual or vested rights but merely declares a policy to be pursued until the legislature shall ordain otherwise" ... Policies, unlike contracts, are inherently subject to revision and repeal, and to construe laws as contracts when the obligation is not clearly and unequivocally expressed would be to limit drastically the essential powers of a legislative body.”
40 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“shall be paid the sum of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500.00) annually and for life from the date of such retirement ....”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“provided for compulsory retirement and for the payment of annuities to retired teachers. By section 1 the Board of Education was directed to retire teachers from active service on February 1 and August 1 of each year according to the following program: In 1926, those 75 years of age or over; in 1927, those 74 years of age or over; in 1928, those 73 years of age or over; in 1929, those 72 years of age or over; and in 1930, and in each year thereafter, those 70 years of age or over. Section 2 (Smith-Hurd IlLStats. c. 122, § 614b) provided: ‘Each person so retired from active service who served in the public schools of such city for twenty or more years prior to such retirement, shall be paid the sum of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500.00) annually and for life from the date of such retirement from the money derived from the general tax levy for educational purposes.’”
1 later decision 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.