Wisconsin v. J. C. Penney Co.’s Empirical Analysis
311 U.S. 435 · 1940
Citation profile
60 federal appellate · 12 district · 641 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 990 later decisions (169 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973), Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady (1977)
60 federal appellate · 12 district · 641 state decisions — followed in 49 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 Welch v. Henry · Curry v. McCanless · Lawrence v. State Tax Commission · Underwood Typewriter Co. v. Chamberlain
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 990 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“substantial privilege of carrying on business”
67 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““At best, the responsibility for devising just and productive sources of revenue challenges the wit of legislators. Nothing can be less helpful than for courts to go beyond the extremely limited restrictions that the Constitution places upon the states and to inject themselves in a merely negative way into the delicate processes of fiscal policy-making.” 311 U.S. at 445 , 61 S.Ct. at 250 .”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“tied to the earnings which the State . . . has made possible'”
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.