Ferguson v. Skrupa’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
374 federal appellate · 197 district · 679 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,991 later decisions (196 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Jackson v. Denno (1964), Roe v. Wade (1973)
374 federal appellate · 197 district · 679 state decisions — followed in 41 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1253
Relies on Williamson v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, Inc. · Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co. · Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York · West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish
Cited together with Williamson v. Lee Optical of Oklahoma, Inc. · City of New Orleans v. Dukes · Usery v. Turner Elkhorn Mining Co. · Nebbia v. People of State of New York · Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York
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 1,991 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Under the system of government created by our Constitution, it is up to legislatures, not courts, to decide on the wisdom and utility of legislation.”
66 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to sit as a 'superlegislature to weigh the wisdom of legislation' ....”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(S)tatutes create many classifications which do not deny equal protection; it is only 'invidious discrimination' which offends the Constitution.”
9 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.