United States v. Darusmont’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
113 federal appellate · 6 district · 89 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 356 later decisions (28 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2022 · most notably Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. RA Gray & Co. (1984), Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products Corp. (1983)
113 federal appellate · 6 district · 89 state decisions — followed in 17 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. § 1 (Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2008) · 26 U.S.C. § 7851
Relies on Cohan v. Commissioner · Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad · Welch v. Henry · Blodgett v. Holden · Milliken 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 356 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Taxation is neither a penalty imposed on the taxpayer nor a liability which he assumes by contract. It is but a way of apportioning the cost of government among those who in some measure are privileged to enjoy its benefits and must bear its burdens. Since no citizen enjoys immunity from that burden, its retroactive imposition does not necessarily infringe due process, and to challenge the present tax it is not enough to point out that the taxable event, the receipt of income, antedated the statute.””
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]n enacting general revenue statutes, Congress almost without exception has given each such statute an effective date prior to the date of actual enactment. . . . Usually the 'retroactive' feature has application only to that portion of the current calendar year preceding the date of enactment, but [some statutes have been] applicable to an entire calendar year that had expired preceding enactment. This 'retroactive' application apparently has been confined to short and limited periods required by the practicalities of producing national legislation. We may safely say that it is a customary congressional practice.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ ‘Nobody has a vested right in the rate of taxation, which may be retroactively changed at the will of Congress at least for periods of less than twelve months; Congress has done so from the outset... . The injustice is no greater than if a man chance to make a profitable sale in the months before the general rates are retroactively changed. Such a one may indeed complain that, could he have foreseen the increase, he would have kept the transaction unliquidated, but it will not avail him; he must be prepared for such possibilities, the system being already in operation. His is a different case from, that of one who, when he takes action, has no reason to suppose that any transactions of the sort will he taxed at all.’ ” (Emphasis added.) United States v. Darusmont, 449 U.S. 292, 298 , 66 L. Ed. 2d 513, 518-19 , 101 S. Ct. 549, 552-53 (1981), quoting Cohan v. Commissioner, 39 E2d 540, 545 (2d Cir. 1930) (Hand, J.).”
2 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.