Tennessee Coal Iron Co v. Muscoda Local No 123 Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co’s Empirical Analysis
321 U.S. 590 · 1944
Citation profile
448 federal appellate · 201 district · 144 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,488 later decisions (46 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. (1946), United Public Workers of America v. Mitchell (1947)
448 federal appellate · 201 district · 144 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Darby · Overnight Motor Transportation Co. v. Missel · Order of Railroad Telegraphers v. Railway Express Agency, Inc. · Kirschbaum v. Walling US Arsenal Bldg Corporation
Cited together with Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. · Armour & Co. v. Wantock · Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · Steiner v. Mitchell · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
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 1,488 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business.”
72 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“employment in excess of [forty hours] at a rate not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which [the employee] is employed.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“guarantee[ ] compensation for all work or employment engaged in by employees covered by the Act.”
7 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.