Samuel Worcester v. The State of Georgia’s Empirical Analysis
31 U.S. 515 · 1832
Citation profile
335 federal appellate · 159 district · 312 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,267 later decisions (174 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Baker v. Carr (1962), Morton v. Mancari (1974)
335 federal appellate · 159 district · 312 state decisions — followed in 32 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 M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Gibbons v. Ogden · Cohens v. Virginia · Martin Fairfax v. Hunter's
Cited together with United States v. Kagama · Williams v. Lee · McClanahan v. State Tax Commission of Arizona · Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez · The Cherokee Nation v. The State of Georgia
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 1,267 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“distinct, independent political communities, retaining their original natural rights”
78 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The language used in treaties with the Indians should never be construed to their prejudice.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“distinct political communities, having territorial boundaries, within which their authority is exclusive, and having a right to all lands within those boundaries, which is not only acknowledged, but guaranteed by the United States.”
20 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.