Michigan v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

90 federal appellate · 27 district · 38 state decisions

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 215 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““We do not stop to inquire whether this construction of the state statutes is the correct one for we think the argument ignores the effect of a lien for federal taxes under the supremacy clause of the Constitution. The establishment of a tax lien by Congress is an exercise of its constitutional power 'To lay and collect Taxes’. Article I, § 8 of the Constitution. United States v. Snyder, 149 U.S. 210 , 13 S.Ct. 846 , 37 L.Ed. 705 . And laws of Congress enacted pursuant to the Constitution are by Article VI of the Constitution declared to be ‘the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.’ “ ‘It is of the very nature and essence of a lien, that no matter into whose hands the property goes, it passes cum onere.’ Burton v. Smith, 13 Pet. 464, 483 , 10 L.Ed. 248 ; Rankin v. Scott, 12 Wheat. 177, 179 , 6 L.Ed. 592 ; Howard v. Railway Co., 101 U. S. 837, 845 , 25 L.Ed. 1081 . Hence it is not debatable that a tax lien imposed by a law of Congress, as we have held the present lien is imposed, cannot, without the consent of Congress, be displaced by later liens imposed by authority of any state law or judicial decision. United States v. Snyder, supra; United States v. City of Green-ville, 4 Cir., 118 F.2d 963 .””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Miles v. Comm'r · In Re Ever Krisp Food Products Co.