Smith v. Allwright’s Empirical Analysis
321 U.S. 649 · 1944
Citation profile
508 federal appellate · 111 district · 305 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,594 later decisions (200 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. (1970), Baker v. Carr (1962)
508 federal appellate · 111 district · 305 state decisions — followed in 35 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
reviewedSmith v. Allwright (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · Parker v. Brown · United States v. Classic · Lisenba v. People of State of California
Cited together with Terry v. Adams · United States v. Classic · Nixon v. Condon · Reynolds v. Sims · Nixon v. Herndon
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 1,594 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“restricted railroad ticket, good for this day and train only.”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“We think that this statutory system for the selection of party nominees for inclusion on the general election ballot makes the party which is required to follow these legislative directions an agency of the State in so far as it determines the participants in a primary election. The party takes its character as a state agency from the duties imposed upon it by state statutes ....”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“this Court has never felt constrained to follow precedent.”
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.