The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantationss v. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Empirical Analysis
37 U.S. 657 · 1838
Citation profile
26 federal appellate · 23 district · 97 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 336 later decisions (76 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Baker v. Carr (1962), McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961)
26 federal appellate · 23 district · 97 state decisions — followed in 29 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 Wayman v. Southard · Chisholm, Ex'r. v. Georgia · Robinson v. Campbell · The United States v. Judge Peters
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 336 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * The question is whether, -on the case before a court, their action is judicial or extrajudicial, with or without the authority of law to render a judgment or decree upon the rights of the litigant parties. If the law confers the power to render a judgment or decree, then the court has jurisdiction; what shall be adjudged or decreed between the parties, and with which is the right of the case, is judicial action, by hearing and determining it, * *”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Blake v. Nesbet · Welch v. Focht““No court acts differently in deciding on boundary between states than on lines between separate tracts of land; if there is uncertainty, where the line is, if there is a confusion of boundaries by the nature of interlocking grants, the obliteration of marks, the intermixing of possession under different proprietors, the effects of accident, fraud, or time, or other kindred causes, it is a case appropriate to equity.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““If congress consented, then the states were in this respect restored to their original inherent sovereignty; such consent being the sole limitation imposed by the constitution, when given, left the states as they were before, as held by this court in Poole v. Fleeger, 11 Pet. 185, 209 , 9 L.Ed. 680 ; whereby their compacts became of binding force, and finally settled the boundary between them; operating with the same effect as a treaty between sovereign powers.””
3 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.