Best v. Humboldt Placer Mining Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
230 federal appellate · 84 district · 37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 554 later decisions (28 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2022 · most notably Boddie v. Connecticut (1971), United States v. Locke (1985)
230 federal appellate · 84 district · 37 state decisions — followed in 12 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
reviewedHumboldt Placer Mining Co. v. Best (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 30 U.S.C. § 21 · 30 U.S.C. § 22 · 43 U.S.C. § 1201 · 43 U.S.C. § 2 (Bureau of Land Management Drug Enforcement Supplemental Authority Act)
Relies on Texas Pacific Railway Company v. Abilene Cotton Oil Company · Thompson v. Magnolia Petroleum Co. · International Ass'n of Machinists v. Duckworth · United States v. Dow
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 554 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * where minerals have been found and the evidence is of such a character that a person of ordinary prudence would be justified in further expenditure of his labor and means, with a reasonable prospect of success, in developing a valuable mine, the re quirements of the statute have been met.””
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“So long as the legal title remains in the Government, the Secretary has the power and duty upon proper notice and hearing to determine whether the claim is valid.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“plenary authority over the administration of public lands, including mineral lands; and * * * broad authority to issue regulations concerning them”
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.