United States v. California’s Empirical Analysis
332 U.S. 19 · 1947
Citation profile
162 federal appellate · 42 district · 61 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 443 later decisions (57 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2023 · most notably Powell v. McCormack (1969), Heckler v. Community Health Services of Crawford County, Inc. (1984)
162 federal appellate · 42 district · 61 state decisions — followed in 26 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 Hines v. Davidowitz · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · United States v. Causby · United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. · Utah Power Light Company v. United States No 202 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 443 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“And even assuming that Government agencies have been negligent in failing to recognize or assert the claims of the Government at an earlier date, the great interests of the Government in this ocean area are not to be forfeited as a result. The Government, which holds its interests here as elsewhere in trust for all the people, is not to be deprived of those interests by the ordinary court rules designed particularly for private disputes over individually owned pieces of property; and officers who have no authority at all to dispose of Government property cannot by their conduct cause the Government to lose its valuable rights by their acquiescence, laches, or failure to act.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * California is not the owner of. the three-mile marginal belt along its coast, and that the Federal Government rather than the state has paramount rights in and power over that belt, an incident to which is full dominion over the resources of the soil under that water area, including oil.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * It is not denied that Congress has given a very broad authority to the Attorney General to institute and conduct litigation in order to establish and safeguard government rights and properties. * * * [Footnote omitted.]”
2 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.