Little v. Tracy’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently January 2025 · most notably Public Service Commission v. Wimbledon Grain Co. (2003), Selzler v. Selzler (2001)
1 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
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 5 U.S.C. § 553 (Administrative Procedure Act of 1946)
Relies on Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission · New York Central Railroad Company v. Sarah White · Mountain Timber Company v. State of Washington · Hawkins v. Bleakly · International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers v. Interstate Commerce Commission
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“court cannot indulge in speculation as to the probable or possible qualifications which might have been in the mind of the legislature, but the statute must be given effect according to its plain and obvious meaning, and cannot be extended beyond it.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“the letter of it is not to be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit”
1 later decision 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.