United States v. Alaska’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
13 federal appellate · 13 district · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 74 later decisions (22 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably United States v. Sharpe (1985), Maryland v. Louisiana (1981)
13 federal appellate · 13 district · 17 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedUnited States v. Alaska (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Skiriotes v. Florida · United States v. State of West Virginia · United States v. Louisiana the Louisiana Boundary Case · United States v. California · United States v. Maine
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 74 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a well-marked indentation whose penetration is in such proportion to the width of its mouth as to contain landlocked waters and constitute more than a mere curvature of the coast.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the exercise of sovereignty must have been, historically, an assertion of power to exclude all foreign vessels and navigation.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“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.”
1 later decision 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.