Ex parte McCardle’s Empirical Analysis
74 U.S. 506 · 1868
Citation profile
338 federal appellate · 164 district · 112 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,260 later decisions (78 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Fay v. Noia (1963), Flast v. Cohen (1968)
338 federal appellate · 164 district · 112 state decisions — followed in 34 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 Yeaton v. The United States
Cited together with Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment · Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife · McNutt v. General Motors Acceptance Corp. · Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly · United States v. Sherwood
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 1,260 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Without jurisdiction the court cannot proceed at all in any cause. Jurisdiction is power to declare the law, and when it ceases to exist, the only function remaining to the court is that of announcing the fact and dismissing the cause.”
75 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[J]udicial duty is not less fitly performed by declining ungranted jurisdiction than in exercising firmly that which the Constitution and the laws confer.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. McGregor v. Goord · King v. Finch
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.