Propper v. Clark’s Empirical Analysis
337 U.S. 472 · 1949
Citation profile
370 federal appellate · 54 district · 32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 815 later decisions (124 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Daniels v. Williams (1986), Bishop v. Wood (1976)
370 federal appellate · 54 district · 32 state decisions — followed in 12 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
reviewedClark v. Propper (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2283 · 50 U.S.C. § 4307
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co. · Milliken v. Meyer · Pennoyer v. Neff · West v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
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 815 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In dealing with issues of state law that enter into judgments of federal courts, we are hesitant to overrule decisions by federal courts skilled in the law of particular states unless their conclusions are shown to be unreasonable.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Bishop v. Wood · Runyon v. McCrary“[t]he submission of special issues [to a state court] is a useful device in judicial administration in such circumstances as existed in the Magnolia, Spector, Fieldcrest and Pullman cases, supra 7 * * * in the absence of special circumstances, 320 U.S. at [pages] 236, 237, [64 S.Ct. at pages 11, 12, 88 L.Ed. 9], it is not to be used to impede the normal course of action where federal courts have been granted jurisdiction of the controversy.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The cases mentioned above where this Court required submission of single issues, excised from the controversy, to state courts were cases in equity.”
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.