Cappaert v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
141 federal appellate · 75 district · 123 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 453 later decisions (26 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Arizona v. California (1983), Maine v. Taylor (1986)
141 federal appellate · 75 district · 123 state decisions — followed in 12 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
reviewedUnited States v. Cappaert (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States · Blonder-Tongue Laboratories, Inc. v. University of Illinois Foundation · United States v. Utah Construction & Mining Co. · State of Arizona v. State of California · Winters 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 453 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]hen the Federal Government withdraws its land from the public domain and reserves it for a federal purpose, the Government, by implication, reserves appurtenant water then unappropriated to the extent needed to accomplish the purpose of the reservation. In so doing the United States acquires a reserved right in unappropriated water which vests on the date of the reservation and is superior to the rights of future appropriators. Reservation of water rights is empowered by the Commerce Clause, Art. I § 8, which permits federal regulation of navigable streams, and the Property Clause, Art. IV, § 3, which permits federal regulation of federal lands. The doctrine applies to Indian reservations and other federal enclaves, encompassing water rights in navigable and nonnavigable streams.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“only that amount of water necessary to fulfill the purpose of the reservation.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“situated on land owned by the United States since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848”
5 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.