Zorach v. Clauson’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
524 federal appellate · 164 district · 298 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,548 later decisions (108 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961), Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
524 federal appellate · 164 district · 298 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.
Relationships
Relies on Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Everson v. Board of Education · Stromberg v. People of State of California · Murdock v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Cited together with Lemon v. Kurtzman · School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp J Murray III · Everson v. Board of Education · Walz v. Tax Comm'n of City of New York · Engel v. Vitale
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 1,548 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[w]e are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”
101 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The problem, like many problems in constitutional law, is one of degree.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“go to religious centers for religious instruction or devotional exercises.”
4 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.