United States v. Morton Salt Co.’s Empirical Analysis
338 U.S. 632 · 1950
Citation profile
1,147 federal appellate · 295 district · 413 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,679 later decisions (65 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably See v. City of Seattle (1967), Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath (1951)
1,147 federal appellate · 295 district · 413 state decisions — followed in 39 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. Morton Salt Co. (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 41 (§ 1 of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914) · 5 U.S.C. § 1001
Relies on Boyd v. United States · Olmstead v. United States · Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad · Edwin Hale v. William Henkel · Wickard v. Filburn
Cited together with Oklahoma Press Pub Co v. Walling US News Printing Co · United States v. Powell · Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Perkins · See v. City of Seattle · Federal Trade Commission v. American Tobacco 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 2,679 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the inquiry is within the authority of the agency, the demand is not too indefinite and the information sought is reasonably relevant.”
165 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“courts of appeals shall have jurisdiction of appeals from all final decisions of the district courts of the United States.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“* * * any order of the commission made in pursuance * * * [of] sections 41-46 and 47-58 of this title * * *”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.