Hanna v. Plumer’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
2,389 federal appellate · 823 district · 178 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6,249 later decisions (70 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society (1975), Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson (1971)
2,389 federal appellate · 823 district · 178 state decisions — followed in 33 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
reviewedHanna v. Plumer (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2072
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Manufacturing Co. · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland
Cited together with Erie Co v. Tompkins · Byrd v. Blue Ridge Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. · Ragan v. Merchants Transfer & WareHouse Co. · Walker v. Armco Steel Corp. · Guaranty Trust Co. v. 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 6,249 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“rationally capable of classification as either.”
111 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[s]uch rules shall not abridge, enlarge or modify any substantive right.”
84 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“discouragement of forum-shopping and avoidance of inequitable administration of the laws.”
79 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.