United States v. Earth Sciences, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
599 F.2d 368 · 1979
Citation profile
49 federal appellate · 35 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 148 later decisions — most recently August 2020 · most notably National Wildlife Federation v. Gorsuch (1982), Dague v. City of Burlington (1991)
49 federal appellate · 35 district · 5 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 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 33 U.S.C. § 1251 (Alternative Water Sources Act of 2000) · 33 U.S.C. § 1311 · 33 U.S.C. § 1314 · 33 U.S.C. § 1316 · 33 U.S.C. § 1319 · 33 U.S.C. § 1342 · 33 U.S.C. § 1362
Relies on De Sylva v. Ballentine · The Daniel Ball · Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Train · Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Costle
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 148 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]he concept of a point source was designed to further [the CWA's regulatory] scheme by embracing the broadest possible definition of any identifiable conveyance from which pollutants might enter the waters of the United States.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, [or] discrete fissure ... from which pollutants are or may be discharged.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“fail[ed] because of flaws in the construction or inadequate size to handle the fluids utilized, with resulting discharge, ... the escape of liquid from the confined system [was] from a point source.”
7 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.