United States v. American Trucking Associations’s Empirical Analysis
310 U.S. 534 · 1940
Citation profile
1,891 federal appellate · 400 district · 316 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,871 later decisions (247 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Carnegie-Mellon University v. Cohill (1988), Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill (1978)
1,891 federal appellate · 400 district · 316 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from District of Columbia District Court)
Relationships
Relies on Caminetti v. United States · Sorrells v. United States · Norwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United States · Securities & Exchange Commission v. United States Realty & Improvement Co.
Cited together with Norwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United States · Train v. Colorado Public Interest Research Group, Inc. · Udall v. Tallman · Rector Etc of Holy Trinity Church v. United States · Caminetti 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 4,871 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“There is, of course, no more persuasive evidence of the purpose of a statute than the words by which the legislature undertook to give expression to its wishes.”
217 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“it takes color from its surroundings . . . (in) the statute where it appears,”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“limited to those employees (of common carriers) whose activities affect the safety of operation. The (Secretary of Transportation) has no jurisdiction to regulate the qualifications or hours of service of any others.”
4 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.