United States v. Dickinson’s Empirical Analysis
331 U.S. 745 · 1947
Citation profile
183 federal appellate · 60 district · 164 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,092 later decisions (46 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Neil v. Biggers (1972), International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States (1977)
183 federal appellate · 60 district · 164 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
reviewedUnited States v. Dickinson (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Memphis Cotton Oil Co. · Bauman v. Ross · United States v. Arthur Lynah · Sharp v. United States
Cited together with United States v. Dow · United States v. Causby · United States v. Cress · United States v. Miller · United States v. Arthur Lynah
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 1,092 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[put] on the owner the onus of determining the decisive moment in the process of acquisition by the United States when the fact of taking could no longer be in controversy.”
58 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[The Government] regards [the erosion damage] as consequential, to be borne without any right to compensation. Of course, payment need only be made for what is taken, but for all that the Government takes it must pay. When it takes property by flooding, it takes the land which it permanently floods as well as that which inevitably washes away as a result of that flooding. The mere fact that all the United States needs and physically appropriates is the land up to the new level of the river, does not determine what in nature it has taken. If the Government cannot take the acreage it wants without also washing away more, that more becomes part of the taking.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“If the resulting erosion . . . was in fact preventable by prudent measures, the cost of that protection is a proper basis for determining the damage.”
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.