United States v. Illinois Central Railroad’s Empirical Analysis
303 U.S. 239 · 1938
Citation profile
288 federal appellate · 50 district · 64 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 511 later decisions (17 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2019 · most notably Screws v. United States (1945), Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston (1985)
288 federal appellate · 50 district · 64 state decisions — followed in 18 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
reviewedUnited States v. Illinois Cent. R. Co. (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Murdock · St. Louis & S. F. R. Co. v. United States · United States v. Kansas City Southern Ry. Co. · United States v. Sioux City Stock Yards 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 511 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(i)n statutes denouncing offenses involving turpitude, 'willfully' is generally used to mean with evil purpose, criminal intent or the like (b)ut in those denouncing acts not in themselves wrong, the word is often used without any such implication.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“precisely the same in kind and degree as it would have been if its yardmaster's failure had been intentional instead of merely negligent.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“is not imposed for unwitting failure to comply.”
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.