Gonzales v. Oregon’s Empirical Analysis
2006
Citation profile
448 federal appellate · 120 district · 57 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,046 later decisions (45 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), Johnson v. United States (2010)
448 federal appellate · 120 district · 57 state decisions — followed in 14 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
reviewedOregon v. Ashcroft (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1604 (§ 105 of the Truth in Lending Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 801 (§ 101 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 801A · 21 U.S.C. § 802 (§ 102 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 811 (§ 201 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 812 (§ 202 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 821 (§ 301 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 822 (§ 302 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · United States v. Mead Corp. · Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. · Hj Inc v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Company
Cited together with Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · United States v. Mead Corp. · Skidmore v. Swift & Co. · Auer v. Robbins · Christensen v. Harris County
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 1,046 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a]n agency does not acquire special authority to interpret its own words when, instead of using its expertise and experience to formulate a regulation, it has elected merely to paraphrase the statutory language.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[d]eference in accordance with Chevron ... is warranted only 'when it appears that Congress delegated authority to the agency generally to make rules carrying the force of law, and that the agency interpretation claiming deference was promulgated in the exercise of that authority.'”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In our view Auer and the standard of deference it accords to an agency are inapplicable here.... The language the Interpretive Rule addresses comes from Congress, not the Attorney General, and the near equivalence of the statute and regulation belies the Government's argument for Auer deference”
6 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.