Mills v. Electric Auto-Lite Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1970
Citation profile
1,303 federal appellate · 429 district · 385 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,896 later decisions (79 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Hensley v. Eckerhart (1983), Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society (1975)
1,303 federal appellate · 429 district · 385 state decisions — followed in 38 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
reviewedElmer E. Mills and Louis Susman, and v. The Electric Autolite Company Mergenthaler Linotype Company American Mfg. Co., Inc., And (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1117 (§ 35 of the Trademark Act of 1946 (Lanham Act)) · 15 U.S.C. § 78A (§ 1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) · 15 U.S.C. § 78C (§ 3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) · 15 U.S.C. § 78I (§ 9 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) · 15 U.S.C. § 78N (§ 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) · 28 U.S.C. § 1292
Relies on J. I. Case Co. v. Borak · Hecht Co. v. Bowles · Sprage v. Ticonic Nat Bank · Fleischmann Distilling Corp. v. Maier Brewing Co.
Cited together with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · Hall v. Cole · J. I. Case Co. v. Borak · Sprage v. Ticonic Nat Bank · Affiliated Ute Citizens of Utah v. United States
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 3,896 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the plaintiff's successful litigation confers 'a substantial benefit on the members of an ascertainable class, and where the court's jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit makes possible an award that will operate to spread the costs proportionately among them.'”
116 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the defect have a significant propensity to affect the voting process.”
76 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(I)t is the duty of the courts to be alert to provide such (private) remedies as are necessary to make effective the congressional purpose”
16 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.