Parker v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
317 U.S. 341 · 1943
Citation profile
1,322 federal appellate · 419 district · 458 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,901 later decisions (200 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Mitchell v. Forsyth (1985), Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc. (1976)
1,322 federal appellate · 419 district · 458 state decisions — followed in 40 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) · 15 U.S.C. § 2 (§ 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act) · 19 U.S.C. § 1332 (Tariff Act of 1930) · 21 U.S.C. § 301 (Animal Drug Amendments of 1968) · 28 U.S.C. § 41 · 7 U.S.C. § 1302 · 7 U.S.C. § 601 · 7 U.S.C. § 602
Relies on Standard Oil Company of New Jersey v. United States · Wickard v. Filburn · Adams Express Co. v. Croninger · Simpson v. Shepard
Cited together with City of Lafayette Louisiana v. Louisiana Power & Light Company · California Retail Liquor Dealers Assn. v. Midcal Aluminum, Inc. · Town of Hallie v. City of Eau Claire · Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc. · Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar
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 3,901 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We find nothing in the language of the Sherman Act or in its history which suggests that its purpose was to restrain a state or its officers or agents from activities directed by its legislature. In a dual system of government in which, under the Constitution, the states are sovereign, save only as Congress may constitutionally subtract from their authority, an unexpressed purpose to nullify a state’s control over its officers and agents is not lightly to be attributed to Congress.”
164 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The state in adopting and enforcing the prorate program made no contract or agreement and entered into no conspiracy in restraint of trade or to establish monopoly but, as sovereign, imposed the restraint as an act of government which the Sherman Act did not undertake to prohibit.”
29 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal....”
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.