Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Massachusetts’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
1,033 federal appellate · 452 district · 517 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,676 later decisions (76 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Pilot Life Insurance v. Dedeaux (1987), Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Taylor (1987)
1,033 federal appellate · 452 district · 517 state decisions — followed in 38 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 15 U.S.C. § 1011 (§ 1 of the McCarran-Ferguson Act) · 15 U.S.C. § 1012 (§ 2 of the McCarran-Ferguson Act) · 28 U.S.C. § 1257 · 29 U.S.C. § 1001 (§ 2 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1002 (§ 3 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1144 (§ 514 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 151 (§ 1 of the National Labor Relations Act) · 29 U.S.C. § 157 (§ 7 of the National Labor Relations Act)
Relies on Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. · Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co. · San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon · Hines v. Davidowitz · Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck
Cited together with Pilot Life Insurance v. Dedeaux · Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc. · Fort Halifax Packing Co. v. Coyne · Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon · Fmc Corporation v. Holliday
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 3,676 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“if it has a connection with or reference to such a plan.”
299 later decisions quote this exact passage“Neither an employee benefit plan ... nor any trust established under such a plan, shall be deemed to be an insurance company, ... for purposes of any law of any State purporting to regulate insurance companies [or] insurance contracts.”
50 later decisions quote this exact passage“any and all State laws insofar as they may now or hereafter relate to any employee benefit plan.”
45 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.