Commissioner v. Lester’s Empirical Analysis
1961
Citation profile
168 federal appellate · 69 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 524 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2014 · most notably United States v. Generes (1972), Jacklin v. Commissioner (1982)
168 federal appellate · 69 state decisions — followed in 18 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
reviewedLester v. Commissioner (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 22 · 26 U.S.C. § 23
Relies on Helvering v. Horst · Corliss v. Bowers · Rock Island Co v. United States · Douglas v. Willcuts · United States v. Olympic Radio & Television, Inc.
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 524 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a sum certain or percentage of the payment for child support before any of the payment is excluded from the wife's income. The statutory requirement is strict and carefully worded. It does not say that”
53 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“determination by inference or conjecture.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * that part of any payment which the terms of the decree, instrument or agreement fix, in terms of an amount of money or a part of the payment, as a sum which is payable for the support of minor children of the husband.”
6 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.