Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp.’s Empirical Analysis
331 U.S. 218 · 1947
Citation profile
1,260 federal appellate · 603 district · 1,380 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 5,363 later decisions (288 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2026 · most notably Will v. Michigan Department of State Police (1989), United States v. Lopez (1995)
1,260 federal appellate · 603 district · 1,380 state decisions — followed in 49 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
reviewedBoard of Trade v. Illinois Commerce Commission (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Hines v. Davidowitz · Munn v. Illinois · Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. McLaughlin · Thompson v. Magnolia Petroleum Co.
Cited together with Hines v. Davidowitz · Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul · Jones v. Rath Packing Co. · Fidelity Federal Savings and Loan Association v. D Cuesta · Cipollone v. Liggett Group, 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 5,363 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“we start with the assumption that the historic police powers of the States were not to be superseded by the Federal Act unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.”
356 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The test, therefore, is whether the matter on which the State asserts the right to act is in any way regulated by the Federal Act.”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“legislated ... in a field which the States have traditionally occupied,”
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.