Barnhart v. Sigmon Coal Co.’s Empirical Analysis
2002
Citation profile
762 federal appellate · 189 district · 60 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,950 later decisions (62 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Wyeth v. Levine (2009), Shi Liang Lin v. United States Department of Justice (2007)
762 federal appellate · 189 district · 60 state decisions — followed in 12 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 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 9701 · 26 U.S.C. § 9702 · 26 U.S.C. § 9706 · 29 U.S.C. § 1001 (§ 2 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974)
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, Inc. · Connecticut National Bank v. Germain · Russello v. United States · Robinson v. Shell Oil Co.
Cited together with Robinson v. Shell Oil Co. · Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · United States v. Ron Pair Enterprises, Inc. · Russello v. United States · Connecticut National Bank v. Germain
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 1,950 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“As in all statutory construction cases, we begin with the language of the statute.”
41 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]hen Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, it is generally presumed that Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion.”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“must presume that a legislature says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there.”
14 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.