Collector v. Day’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

77 federal appellate · 27 district · 62 state decisions

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 422 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The supremacy of the general government, therefore, so much relied on in the argument of the counsel for' the plaintiff: in error, in respect to the question before us, cannot be maintained. The two governments are. upon an equality, and the question is whether the power ‘to lay and collect taxes’ enables the general government to tax the salary of a judicial officer of the state, which officer is a means or instrumentality employed to carry into execution one of its most important functions, the administration of the laws, and which concerns the exercise of a right reserved to the states. AVe do not say the mere circumstance of the establishment of the judicial department, and the appointment of officers to administer the laws, being among the reserved powers of the state, disables the general government from levying the tax, as that depends upon the express" power ‘to lay and collect taxes’; but it shows that it is an original inherent power, never parted with, and in respect to which the supremacy of that government does not exist, and is of no importance in determining the question; and, further, that being an original and reserved power, and the judicial officers appointed under it being a means or instrumentality employed to carry it into effect, the right and necessity of its unimpaired exercise, and the exemption of the officer .from taxation by the general government, stand upon as solid a ground, and are maintained hy principles and reasons as cogent, as those whic”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Leser v. Garnett · Bettman v. Warwick

2. “The general government, and the States, although both exist within the same territorial”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Boyd v. Nebraska ex rel. Thayer · Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.

3. ““Such being the separate and independent condition of the States in our complex system, as recognized by the Constitution, that without them, the general government itself would disappear from the family of nations, it would seem to follow, as a reasonable, if not necessary consequence, that the means and instru-mentalities employed for carrying on the operations of their governments, for preserving their existence, and fulfilling the high and responsible duties assigned to them in the Constitution, should be left free and unimpaired, should not be liable to be crippled, much less defeated by the taxing power of another government, which power acknowledges no limits but the will of the legislative body imposing the tax. And, more especially, those means and in-strumentalities which are the creation of their sovereign and reserved rights, one of which is the establishment of the judicial department, and the appointment of officers to administer their laws. Without this power, and the exercise of it, we risk nothing in saying that no one of the States under the form of government guaranteed by the Constitution could long preserve its existence.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · 191 F. Supp. 495 - Palmer v. United States Civil Service Commission