Armour & Co. v. Wantock’s Empirical Analysis
323 U.S. 126 · 1944
Citation profile
516 federal appellate · 127 district · 255 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,469 later decisions (40 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Skidmore v. Swift & Co. (1944), Social Security Board v. Nierotko (1946)
516 federal appellate · 127 district · 255 state decisions — followed in 29 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
reviewedWantock v. Armour & Co. (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 203 · 29 U.S.C. § 207
Relies on Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Kirschbaum v. Walling US Arsenal Bldg Corporation · Tennessee Coal Iron Co v. Muscoda Local No 123 Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co
Cited together with Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. · Tennessee Coal Iron Co v. Muscoda Local No 123 Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H
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 1,469 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is timely again to remind counsel that words of our opinions are to be read in the light of the facts of the case under discussion. To keep opinions within reasonable bounds precludes writing into them every limitation or variation which might be suggested by the circumstances of cases not before the Court. General expressions transposed to other facts are often misleading.”
72 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“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.”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * no hard and fast rule may be transposed from one industry to another to say what is necessary in ‘the production of goods.’ What is practically necessary to it will depend on its environment and position * * *. What is required is a practical judgment as to whether the particular employer actually operates the work as part of an integrated effort for the production of goods. ****** “A court would not readily assume that a corporation’s management was spending stockholders’ money on a mere hobby or an extravagance. The company does not prove or assert that this fire protection is so unrelated to its business of production that it does not for income-tax purposes deduct the wages of these employees from gross income as ‘ordinary and necessary expenses.’ ””
4 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.