United States v. Sherwood’s Empirical Analysis
312 U.S. 584 · 1941
Citation profile
1,632 federal appellate · 1,038 district · 129 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6,660 later decisions (80 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably United States v. Testan (1976), United States v. Mitchell (1983)
1,632 federal appellate · 1,038 district · 129 state decisions — followed in 28 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
reviewedSherwood v. United States (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 41
Relies on United States v. Lee · United States v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. · Federal Housing Administration, Region No. 4 v. Burr · United States v. Shaw
Cited together with United States v. Testan · United States v. King · Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corp. · United States v. Mitchell · Soriano 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 6,660 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The United States, as sovereign, is immune from suit save as it consents to be sued, and the terms of its consent to be sued in any court define that court's jurisdiction to entertain the suit.”
121 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[a]n authority conferred upon a court to make rules of procedure for the exercise of its jurisdiction is not an authority to enlarge its jurisdiction[.]”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the statutory language with that conservatism which is appropriate in the case of a waiver of sovereign immunity.”
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.