Cort v. Ash’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
2,344 federal appellate · 1,127 district · 818 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7,917 later decisions (164 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Landgraf v. USI Film Products (1994), Shaffer v. Heitner (1977)
2,344 federal appellate · 1,127 district · 818 state decisions — followed in 43 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
reviewedAsh v. Cort (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 78U (§ 21 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) · 18 U.S.C. § 591 · 18 U.S.C. § 610 · 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 2 U.S.C. § 431 (§ 301 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971) · 2 U.S.C. § 437 (§ 305 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971) · 2 U.S.C. § 437C (§ 306 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971) · 2 U.S.C. § 437G (§ 309 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971)
Relies on Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond · Commissioner of Internal Revenue v. Estate J Bosch Second National Bank of New Haven
Cited together with Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington · Cannon v. University of Chicago · Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis · J. I. Case Co. v. Borak · California v. Sierra Club
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 7,917 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“one of the class for whose especial benefit the statute was enacted,”
704 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(I)n situations in which it is clear that federal law has granted a class of persons certain rights, it is not necessary to show an intention to create a private cause of action, although an explicit purpose to deny such cause of action would be controlling.”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Corporations are creatures of state law, and investors commit their funds to corporate directors on the understanding that, except where federal law expressly requires certain responsibilities of directors with respect to stockholders, state law will govern the internal affairs of the corporation.”
17 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.