District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1953
Citation profile
88 federal appellate · 66 district · 105 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 351 later decisions (29 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably Berman v. Parker (1954), Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1965)
88 federal appellate · 66 district · 105 state decisions — followed in 15 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
reviewedJohn R. Thompson Co. v. District of Columbia (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Morton Salt Co. · Atlantic Cleaners & Dyers, Inc. v. United States · Robbins v. Taxing District of Shelby Co Tennessee · Maynard v. Hill · Federal Trade Commission v. Bunte Bros.
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 351 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“make and enforce all such reasonable and usual police regulations . . . as [it] deem[s] necessary for the protection of lives, limbs, health, comfort and quiet of all persons and the protection of all property within the District of Columbia.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“full legislative power, subject of course to constitutional limitations to which all lawmaking is subservient and subject also to the power of Congress at any time to revise, alter, or revoke the authority granted.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]o exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over [the] District [of Columbia].”
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.