Hancock v. Train’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
186 federal appellate · 68 district · 55 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 586 later decisions (24 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Clinton v. Jones (1997), Environmental Protection Agency v. California Ex Rel. State Water Resources Control Board (1976)
186 federal appellate · 68 district · 55 state decisions — followed in 13 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 33 U.S.C. § 1251 (Alternative Water Sources Act of 2000) · 42 U.S.C. § 1857 · 5 U.S.C. § 701
Relies on United States v. United Mine Workers of America · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland · Train v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · United States v. Reliable Transfer Co. · Environmental Protection Agency v. California Ex Rel. State Water Resources Control Board
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 586 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Each department, agency, or instrumentality of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government (1) having jurisdiction over any property or facility, or (2) engaged in any activity resulting, or which may result, in the discharge or runoff of pollutants, and each officer, agent, or employee thereof in the performance of his official duties, shall be subject to, and comply with, all Federal, State, interstate, and local requirements, administrative au thority, and process and sanctions respecting the control and abatement of water pollution in the same manner, and to the same extent as any nongovernmental entity including the payment of reasonable service charges. The preceding sentence shall apply (A) to any requirement whether substantive or procedural (including any recordkeeping or reporting requirement, any requirement respecting permits and any other requirement, whatsoever), (B) to the exercise of any Federal, State, or local administrative authority, and (C) to any process and sanction, whether enforced in Federal, State, or local courts or in any other manner. This subsection shall apply notwithstanding any immunity of such agencies, officers, agents, or employees under any law or rule of law. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal Government, or any officer, agent, or employee thereof in the performance of his official duties, from removing to the appropriate Federal ”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“an authorization of state regulation [of a federal entity] is found only when and to the extent there is `a clear congressional mandate,' `specific congressional action' that makes this authorization of state regulation clear and unambiguous”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“comply with Federal, State, interstate, and local requirements respecting control and abatement of pollution to the same extent that any person is subject to such requirements.”
7 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.