Wickard v. Filburn’s Empirical Analysis
317 U.S. 111 · 1942
Citation profile
1,306 federal appellate · 227 district · 192 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,721 later decisions (184 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Baker v. Carr (1962), Shapiro v. Thompson (1969)
1,306 federal appellate · 227 district · 192 state decisions — followed in 31 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
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1 (§ 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act) · 7 U.S.C. § 1281 (Agricultural Act of 1948) · 7 U.S.C. § 1301 · 7 U.S.C. § 1302 · 7 U.S.C. § 1331 · 7 U.S.C. § 1335 · 7 U.S.C. § 1339
Relies on United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States · Gibbons v. Ogden
Cited together with United States v. Lopez · Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States · United States v. Darby · Perez v. United States · Katzenbach v. McClung
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 2,721 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“wheat consumed on the farm where grown, if wholly outside the scheme of regulation, would have a substantial effect in defeating and obstructing its purpose to stimulate trade therein at increased prices.”
48 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce.”
44 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The general scheme of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 as related to wheat is to control the volume moving in interstate and foreign commerce in order to avoid surpluses and shortages and the consequent abnormally low or high wheat prices and obstructions to commerce.”
10 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.