United States v. Wunderlich’s Empirical Analysis
1951
Citation profile
195 federal appellate · 30 district · 44 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 549 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2024 · most notably Heckler v. Chaney (1985), United States v. Carlo Bianchi & Co. (1963)
195 federal appellate · 30 district · 44 state decisions
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 Ewing v. Mytinger & Casselberry, Inc. · United States v. Moorman · Martinsburg Co v. March · Kihlberg v. 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 549 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Article 15. Disputes. — Except as otherwise specifically provided in this contract, all disputes concerning questions of fact arising under this contract shall be decided by the contracting officer subject to written appeal by the contractor within 30 days to the head of the department concerned or his duly authorized representative, whose decision shall be final and conclusive upon the parties thereto. In the meantime the contractor shall diligently proceed with the work as directed. * * * ””
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[l]aw has reached its finest moments when it has freed man from the unlimited discretion of some ruler, some civil or military official, some bureaucrat. Where discretion is absolute, man has always suffered. At times it has been his property that has been invaded; at times, his privacy; at times, his liberty of movement; at times, his freedom of thought; at times, his life. Absolute discretion is a ruthless master. It is more destructive of freedom than any of man's other inventions. United States v. Wunderlich, 342 U.S. 98, 101 , 72 S.Ct. 154 , 156, 96 L.Ed. 113 (1951) (Douglas, J., dissenting).”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“unless it was founded on fraud, alleged and proved.”
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.