Auer v. Robbins’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
2,106 federal appellate · 670 district · 205 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 5,186 later decisions (58 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Christensen v. Harris County (2000), Food & Drug Administration v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. (2000)
2,106 federal appellate · 670 district · 205 state decisions — followed in 29 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
reviewedMcDONNELL v. CITY OF OMAHA, NEBRASKA (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 201 (American Samoa Labor Standards Amendments of 1956) · 29 U.S.C. § 203 · 29 U.S.C. § 207 · 29 U.S.C. § 213 · 5 U.S.C. § 553 (Administrative Procedure Act of 1946) · 5 U.S.C. § 706
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Bowen v. Georgetown University Hospital · Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand Co.
Cited together with Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Christensen v. Harris County · United States v. Mead Corp. · Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · Thomas Jefferson University v. Shalala
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 5,186 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“plainly erroneous or inconsistent with the regulation.”
119 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]here is simply no reason to suspect that the interpretation does not reflect the agency's fair and considered judgment on the matter in question.”
76 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he Secretary's approach rejects a wooden requirement of actual deductions, but in their absence it requires a clear and particularized policy--one which 'effectively communicates' that deductions will be made in specified circumstances.”
26 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.