United States v. Gratiot’s Empirical Analysis
39 U.S. 526 · 1840
Citation profile
30 federal appellate · 20 district · 27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 137 later decisions (28 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 1997 · most notably Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority (1936), Tennessee Electric Power Co. v. Tennessee Valley Authority (1939)
30 federal appellate · 20 district · 27 state decisions — followed in 15 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.
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 137 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““This contract purports to be a license for smelting lead ore; and it is objected that this is not a lease, within the meaning of the act of Congress. Hut this objection is not well founded. It is a contract for one year, and, of course, within the time limited by the law, which gives to the President authority to lease for five years. Is it, then, a lease? The legal understanding of a lease for years is a contract for the possession and profits of land, for a determinate period, with the recompense of rent. The contract in cues-tión is strictly within this definition. * * * This contract -is for the possession of land. The work is to lie performed at the United States lead mines, and must, of course, be performed within the limits prescribed by law to be attached, to such mines. And there is an express permission to use as much fuel as is necessary to carry on this smelting business, and to cultivate as much land as will suffice to furnish teams, etc., with provender ; and there is an express reservation of the rent of 6 pounds of every 100 pounds of lead smelted, with special and particular stipulation for securing the same. It is not necessary that the rent should be in money. If received in kind, it is rent, in contemplation of law.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“other property belonging to the United States,”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Congress has the same power over [territo ry] as over any other property belonging to the United States; and this power is vested in Congress without limitation, and has been considered the foundation upon which the territorial governments rest.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Edwards v. Carter
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.