State Dyer v. Sims’s Empirical Analysis
341 U.S. 22 · 1951
Citation profile
64 federal appellate · 48 district · 121 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 315 later decisions (34 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2020 · most notably McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961), New York v. United States (1992)
64 federal appellate · 48 district · 121 state decisions — followed in 20 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 State Indiana Anderson v. Brand · State of Missouri v. State of Illinois · State of Oklahoma Phillips v. Guy F Atkinson Co · Combes v. Getz · Hinderlider v. La Plata River & Cherry Creek Ditch 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 315 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a] State cannot be its own ultimate judge in a controversy with a sister State,”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“West Virginia officials induced sister States to contract with her and Congress to consent to the Compact. She now attempts to read herself out of this interstate Compact. . . . Estoppel is not often to be invoked against a government. But West Virginia assumed a contractual obligation with equals by permission of another government that is sovereign in the field. After Congress and sister States had been induced to alter their positions and bind themselves to terms of a covenant, West Virginia should be estopped from repudiating her act. . . .”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“If this Court, in the exercise of its original jurisdiction, were to enter a decree requiring West Virginia to abate pollution of interstate streams, that decree would bind the State. The West Virginia Legislature would have no part in determining the State's obligation. The State Legislature could not alter it; it could not disregard it .... The obligation would be fixed by this Court on the basis of a master's report. Here, the State has bound itself to control pollution by the more effective means of an agreement with other States. The Compact involves a reasonable and carefully limited delegation of power to an interstate agency. Nothing in its Constitution suggests that, in dealing with the problem dealt with by the Compact, West Virginia must wait for the answer to be dictated by this Court after harassing and unsatisfactory litigation.”
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.