Supervisors v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
71 U.S. 435 · 1866
Citation profile
57 federal appellate · 8 district · 122 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 242 later decisions (18 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2008 · most notably Michaelson v. United States ex rel. Chicago (1924), Farmers & Merchants Bank of Monroe v. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (1923)
57 federal appellate · 8 district · 122 state decisions — followed in 35 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 Coy v. City Council of Lyons City
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.
““Tbe conclusion to be deduced from the authorities is that where power is given to public officers, in the language of tlie act before us, or in equivalent, language, — whenever the public interest or individual rights call for its exercise, — the language used, (hough permissive in form, is in fact peremptory. What they are empowered to do for a third, person the law requires shall bo done. The power is given not for their benefit, but for his. It is placed with the depositary to meet the demands of right, and to prevent a failure of justice. It is given as a remedy to those entitled to invoke its aid, and who would otherwise be remediless. In all such oases it is held that the intent of the legislature, which is the tent, was not to devolve a mere discretion, but to impose 'a positive and absolute duty.’ The line which separates this class of eases from lliose which involve the exercise of a discretion judicial in its nature, which courts cannot control, is too obvious to require remark. This case, clearly, does not fall within the latter category.””
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The board of supervisors under township organization, in such counties as may be owing debts which their current revenue, under existing laws, is not sufficient to pay, may, if deemed advisable, levy a special tax . . . to be assessed and collected,” etc., and applied “ in liquidation of such indebtedness.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage““When a statute directs the doing of a thing for the sake of justice or the public good, the word ‘may’ is the same as the word ‘shall,’ ” - •”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Strong v. Day
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.