United States v. Louisiana the Louisiana Boundary Case’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
56 federal appellate · 17 district · 14 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 182 later decisions (45 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Goosby v. Osser (1973), United States v. Louisiana (1960)
56 federal appellate · 17 district · 14 state decisions
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. § 1251 · 33 U.S.C. § 1051 · 33 U.S.C. § 151 · 33 U.S.C. § 152 · 43 U.S.C. § 1301
Relies on Reid v. Covert · United States v. California · Fort Leavenworth Co v. Lowe · John Pollard et al. v. John Hagan et al. · United States v. California
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 182 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Under generally accepted principles of international law, the navigable sea is divided into three zones, distinguished by the nature of the control which the contiguous nation can exercise over them. Nearest to the nation’s shores are its inland, or internal waters. These are subject to the complete sovereignty of the nation, as much as if they were a part of its land territory, and the coastal nation has the privilege even to exclude foreign vessels altogether. Beyond the inland waters, and measured from their seaward edge, is a belt known as the marginal, or territorial, sea. Within it the coastal nation may exercise extensive control but cannot deny the right of innocent passage to foreign nations. Outside the territorial sea are the high seas, which are international waters not subject to the dominion of any single nation.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A recent United Nations study recommended by the International Law Commission reached the following conclusions : “There seems to be fairly general agreement that at least three factors have to be taken into consideration in determining whether a State has acquired a historic title to a maritime area. These factors are: (1) the exercise of authority over the area by the State claiming the historic right; (2) the continuity of this exercise of authority; (3) the attitude of foreign States. First, the State must exercise authority over the area in question in order to acquire a historic title to it. Secondly, such exercise of authority must have continued for a considerable time; indeed it must have developed into a usage. More controversial is the third factor, the position which the foreign States may have taken towards this exercise of authority. Some writers assert that the acquiescence of other States is required for the emergence of an historic title; others think that absence of opposition by these States is sufficient.” Juridical Regime of Historic Waters, Including Historic Bays, [1962] 2 Y.B.Int’l L. Comm’n 1, 13, U.N.Doc.A/CN. 4/143 (1962).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“It is one thing to say that the United States should not be required to take the novel, affirmative step of adding to its territory by drawing straight baselines. It would be quite another to allow the United States to prevent recognition of a historic title which may already have ripened because of past events but which is called into question for the first time in a domestic lawsuit. The latter, we believe, would approach an impermissible contraction of territory against which we cautioned in United States v. California.”
2 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.