Legal Tender Cases Knox v. Lee Parker’s Empirical Analysis
79 U.S. 457 · 1870
Citation profile
72 federal appellate · 58 district · 108 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 529 later decisions (102 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2021 · most notably Chimel v. California (1969), McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher (1961)
72 federal appellate · 58 district · 108 state decisions — followed in 30 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. Fisher · Reintzel v. Morgan · Hellen v. Administrators
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 529 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““That provision has always been understood as referring only to a direct appropriation, and not to consequential injuries resulting from the exercise of lawful power. It has never been supposed to have any bearing upon or to inhibit laws that indirectly work harm and loss to individuals. A new tariff, an embargo, a draft, or a war may inevitably bring upon individuals great loss, may, indeed, render property almost valueless, and may destroy the worth of contracts; but who ever supposed that, because of this, a tariff could not be changed, or a nonintereourse act or an embargo be enacted, or a war be declared?””
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““A decent respect for a co-ordinate branch of the government demands that the judiciary should presume, until the contrary is clearly shown, that there has been no transgression of power by Congress .... Such has always been the rule.... It is incumbent, therefore, upon those who affirm the unconstitutionality of an act of Congress to show clearly that it is in violation of the provisions of the Constitution. It is not sufficient for them that they succeed in raising a doubt.” at 531.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Congress has often exercised, without question, powers that are not expressly given nor ancillary to any single enumerated power.... An[ ] illustration of this may be found in connection with the provisions respecting a census. The Constitution orders an enumeration of free persons in the different States every ten years. The direction extends no further. Yet Congress has repeatedly directed an enumeration not only of free persons in the States but of free persons in the Territories, and not only an enumeration of persons but the collection of statistics respecting age, sex, and production. Who questions the power to do this?”
4 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.