United States v. Lee’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
528 federal appellate · 125 district · 327 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,591 later decisions (83 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. L Smith (1990), Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council (1992)
528 federal appellate · 125 district · 327 state decisions — followed in 35 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. § 1402 · 26 U.S.C. § 3101 (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 3102 (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 3111 (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 3301 (Federal Unemployment Tax Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 7421 · 28 U.S.C. § 1252
Relies on Wisconsin v. Yoder · Sherbert v. Verner · Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts · Harris v. McRae · Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division
Cited together with Wisconsin v. Yoder · Sherbert v. Verner · Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division · Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. L Smith · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut
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 1,591 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Congress and the courts have been sensitive to the needs flowing from the Free Exercise Clause, but every person cannot be shielded from all the burdens incident to exercising every aspect of the right to practice religious beliefs. When followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice, the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity.”
106 later decisions quote this exact passage“valid and neutral law of general applicability.”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“the unacceptable `business of evaluating the relative merits of differing religious claims.'”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.