Helvering v. Gregory’s Empirical Analysis
69 F.2d 809 · 1934
Citation profile
109 federal appellate · 6 district · 18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 242 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Gregory v. Helvering (1935), Food & Drug Administration v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. (2000)
109 federal appellate · 6 district · 18 state decisions — followed in 15 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
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 934
Relies on United States v. Phellis · Pinellas Ice & Cold Storage Co. v. Commissioner · Bullen v. State of Wisconsin · United States v. Isham · Rockefeller v. United States
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 242 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.”
41 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the meaning of a sentence may be more than that of the separate words, as a melody is more than the notes.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“though all the proceedings have their usual effect.”
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.