Tarble's Case’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

50 federal appellate · 15 district · 37 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 236 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Among the powers assigned to the national government is the power ‘to raise and support armies.’ * * * Its control over the subject is plenary and exclusive. It can determine, without question from any state authority, how the army shall be raised, whether by voluntary enlistment or forced draft, the age at which the soldiers shall be received, and the period for which they shall be taken, the compensation he shall be allowed, and the service to which lie shall be assigned.””

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Story v. Perkins · Angelus v. Sullivan

2. ““And the powers of the general government and of the state, although both exist and are exercised within the same territorial limits, are yet separate and distinct sovereignties, acting separately and independently of each other within their respective spheres. And the sphere of action appropriated to the United States is as far beyond the reach of the judicial process issued by a state judge or a state court as if the line of division was traced by landmarks and monuments visible to the eye. And the state of Wisconsin had no more power to authorize these proceedings of its judges and courts than it would have had if the prisoner had been confined in Michigan, or any other state of the Union, for an offense against the laws of the state in which he was imprisoned. It is in the consideration of this distinct and independent character of the government of the United States from that of the government of the several states that the solution of thf question presented in this case, and in similar cases, must be found. There are within the territorial limits of each state two governments, restricted in their spheres of action, but independent of each other, and supreme within their respective spheres. Each has its separate departments, each has its distinct laws, and each has its own tribunals for their enforcement. Neither government can intrude within the jurisdiction, or. authorize any interference therein by its judicial officers with the action, of the other. The two governmen”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Anderson v. Elliott · State ex rel. Atwood v. Johnson

3. ““We do not question the authority of State court, or judge, who is authorized by the laws of the State to issue the writ of habeas corpus, to issue it in any case where the party is imprisoned within its territorial limits, provided it does not appear, when the application is made, that the person imprisoned is in custody under the authority of the United States. The . court or judge has a right to inquire, in this mode of proceeding, for what cause and by what authority the prisoner is confined within the territorial limits of the State sovereignty. And it is the duty of the marshal, or other person having the custody of the prisoner, to make known to the judge or court, by a proper return, the authority by which he holds him in custody. This right to inquire by process of habeas corpus, and the duty of the officer to make a return, grows, necessarily, out of the complex character of our Government, and the existence of two distinct and separate sovereign-ties within the same territorial space, each of them restricted in its powers, and each within its sphere of action, prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, independent of the other. But, after the return is made, and the State judge or court judicially apprized that the party is in custody under the authority of the United States, they can proceed no further. They then know that the prisoner is within the dominion and jurisdiction of another Government, and that neither the writ of habeas corpus, nor any other”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Covell v. Heyman · In re Robb