Witherspoon v. Duncan’s Empirical Analysis
71 U.S. 210 · 1866
Citation profile
30 federal appellate · 6 district · 80 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 222 later decisions (46 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2005 · most notably United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. (1906), Miller Bros. v. Maryland (1954)
30 federal appellate · 6 district · 80 state decisions — followed in 25 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.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Dashiel
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 222 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““* * * * In no just sense can lands be said to be public lands after they have been entered at the land office, and a certificate of entry obtained. If public lands before the •entry, after it they are private property.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Sturr v. Beck · McCune v. Essig“The children ... {were] allowed to enter the lands in controversy. The proper certificate of this donation entry, as it is called, was transmitted, as is usual in land entries, to the General Land Office at Washington. ...”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Lee v. Masner
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.