Atkinson v. Sinclair Refining Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1962
Citation profile
777 federal appellate · 219 district · 247 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,154 later decisions (43 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2023 · most notably At&T Technologies, Inc. v. Communications Workers (1986), John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Livingston (1964)
777 federal appellate · 219 district · 247 state decisions — followed in 31 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
reviewedSinclair Refining Co. v. Atkinson (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 185 (§ 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (Taft-Hartley Act))
Relies on United Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co. · United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel and Car Corp · Bell v. Hood · Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills of Ala. · United Steelworkers v. American Manufacturing Co.
Cited together with United Steelworkers v. Warrior & Gulf Navigation Co. · United Steelworkers v. American Manufacturing Co. · John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Livingston · United Steelworkers of America v. Enterprise Wheel and Car Corp · Textile Workers v. Lincoln Mills of Ala.
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 2,154 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Under our decisions, whether or not the company was bound to arbitrate, as well as what issues it must arbitrate, is a matter to be determined by the Court on the basis of the contract entered into by the parties.”
53 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'prevent a repetition of the Danbury Hatters case, in which many [individual union] members lost their homes ...'”
27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“provided that the arbitration board 'shall consider only individual or local employee or local committee grievances.'”
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.