Babbitt v. Sweet Home Chapter, Communities for Great Ore.’s Empirical Analysis
1995
Citation profile
449 federal appellate · 227 district · 40 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,200 later decisions (48 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Bennett v. Spear (1997), United States v. Mead Corp. (2001)
449 federal appellate · 227 district · 40 state decisions — followed in 10 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 District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 16 U.S.C. § 1361 (§ 2 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972) · 16 U.S.C. § 1372 (§ 102 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972) · 16 U.S.C. § 1531 (§ 2 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973) · 16 U.S.C. § 1532 (§ 3 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973) · 16 U.S.C. § 1533 (§ 4 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973) · 16 U.S.C. § 1534 (§ 5 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973) · 16 U.S.C. § 1536 (§ 7 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973) · 16 U.S.C. § 1537 (§ 8 of the Endangered Species Act of 1973)
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Securities and Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corporation · Russello v. United States · Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill · United States v. Bass
Cited together with Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill · Bennett v. Spear · Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of United States Inc v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Consumer Alert · Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe
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 1,200 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“an act which actually kills or injures wildlife. Such act may include significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he ESA's plain language affirmatively commands all federal agencies to 'insure that any action authorized, funded or carried out by such agency ... is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of habitat to such species.'”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.