Coleman v. Miller’s Empirical Analysis
307 U.S. 433 · 1939
Citation profile
318 federal appellate · 157 district · 240 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,160 later decisions (93 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2025 · most notably Baker v. Carr (1962), Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
318 federal appellate · 157 district · 240 state decisions — followed in 36 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
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 45 (§ 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914) · 28 U.S.C. § 47 · 29 U.S.C. § 160 (§ 10 of the National Labor Relations Act) · 47 U.S.C. § 402
Relies on Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority · National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. · Massachusetts v. Mellon · Mansfield Ry Co v. Swan · Field v. Clark
Cited together with Baker v. Carr · Warth v. Seldin · Flast v. Cohen · Raines v. Byrd · Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
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 1,160 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“in maintaining the effectiveness of their votes.”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"We think that in accordance with this historic precedent the question of the efficacy of ratifications by state legislatures, in the light of previous rejection or attempted withdrawal, should be regarded as a political question pertaining to the political departments, with the ultimate authority in the Congress in the exercise of its control over the promulgation of the amendment." Id. at 450 , 59 S.Ct. at 980 .”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In determining whether a question falls within [the political question] category, the appropriateness under our system of government of attributing finality to the action of the political departments and also the lack of satisfactory criteria for a judicial determination are dominant considerations.”
9 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.