Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. State of Missouri - 9 1939’s Empirical Analysis
308 U.S. 1 · 1939
Citation profile
48 federal appellate · 18 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 191 later decisions (59 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Maryland v. Louisiana (1981), Williams v. State of North Carolina (1942)
48 federal appellate · 18 district · 10 state decisions
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 Aetna Life Ins Co of Hartford Conn v. Haworth · Cohens v. Virginia · Cohens v. Virginia · State of Texas v. State of Florida · Principality of Monaco v. Mississippi
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 191 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]o constitute “a justiciable controversy between the States ... it must appear that the complaining State has suffered a wrong through the action of the other State, furnishing ground for judicial redress, or is asserting a right against the other State which is susceptible of judicial enforcement according to the accepted principles of the common law or equity systems of jurisprudence.””
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In the exercise of our original jurisdiction so as truly to fulfill the constitutional purpose we not only must look to the nature of the interest of the complaining State the essential quality of the right asserted but we must also inquire whether recourse to that jurisdiction . . . is necessary for the State's protection. . . . We have observed that the broad statement that a court having jurisdiction must exercise it . . . is not universally true but has been qualified in certain cases where the federal courts may, in their discretion, properly withhold the exercise of the jurisdiction conferred upon them where there is no want of another suitable forum.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Missouri, in claiming a right to recover taxes from the . . . trustees, or in taking proceedings for collection, is not injuring Massachusetts. By the allegations, the property held in Missouri is amply sufficient to answer the claims of both States and recovery by either does not impair the exercise of any right the other may have. It is not shown that there is danger of the depletion of a fund or estate at the expense of the complainant's interest. It is not shown that the tax claims of the two States are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, the validity of each claim is wholly independent of that of the other . . ..”
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.