Walz v. Tax Comm'n of City of New York’s Empirical Analysis
1970
Citation profile
715 federal appellate · 298 district · 580 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,631 later decisions (201 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc. (1982)
715 federal appellate · 298 district · 580 state decisions — followed in 47 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 26 U.S.C. § 501
Relies on Flast v. Cohen · McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Roth v. United States · Meyer v. State of Nebraska
Cited together with Lemon v. Kurtzman · Everson v. Board of Education · School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp J Murray III · Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist · Zorach v. Clauson
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 2,631 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“sponsorship, financial support, and active involvement of the sovereign in religious activity.”
111 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“an excessive government entanglement with religion.”
93 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof....”
31 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.