United States v. Wyoming’s Empirical Analysis
331 U.S. 440 · 1947
Citation profile
67 federal appellate · 18 district · 54 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 184 later decisions (15 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2020 · most notably Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation (1960), United States v. California (1947)
67 federal appellate · 18 district · 54 state decisions — followed in 14 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
Relies on United States v. United Mine Workers of America · State of Minnesota v. Ethan Allen Hitchcock · United States v. State of Texas · Joseph Guffey v. James a Smith · Bolles Wooden Ware Co v. United States
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 184 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[p]rior to survey, those sections [were] a part of the public lands of the United States and [could have been] disposed of by the Government in any manner and for any purpose consistent with applicable federal statutes.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"Under Wyoming enabling act providing that Sections Nos. 16 and 36 in each township are hereby granted to the State for support of common schools, title to unsurveyed school land passes to State only at date of survey and then only where Federal Government has made no other disposition of land prior to that time. Defendants vigorously assert that the phrase `but shall be received for school purposes only' completely and irrevocably divested the Federal Government of power to dispose of or to deal with any Sections 16 and 36 of the public lands in the State not sold or otherwise disposed of prior to the passage of the Enabling Act. This phrase read in connection with the language of the present grant in Paragraph 4, it is asserted, reveals a clear intention to vest immediately in the State an indefeasible interest in all such lands. We do not believe that the language should be so construed."”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Such land shall not be subject to preemption, homestead entry, or any other entry under the land laws of the United States, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for school purposes only.””
1 later decision 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.