Murdock v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Empirical Analysis
319 U.S. 105 · 1943
Citation profile
522 federal appellate · 186 district · 544 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,315 later decisions (291 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2023 · most notably Brinegar v. United States (1949), Chimel v. California (1969)
522 federal appellate · 186 district · 544 state decisions — followed in 42 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 26 U.S.C. § 22
Relies on Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire · Schneider v. State · Near v. State of Minnesota Olson · Lovell v. City of Griffin
Cited together with Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Schneider v. State · Cox v. State of New Hampshire · Martin v. City of Struthers · Lovell v. City of Griffin
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 2,315 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“not a nominal fee imposed as a regulatory measure to defray the expenses of policing the activities in question.”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“that the pamphlets of Thomas Paine were not distributed free of charge.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
17 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.