United States v. Railroad Co.’s Empirical Analysis
84 U.S. 322 · 1872
Citation profile
24 federal appellate · 17 district · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 195 later decisions (80 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2018 · most notably Barrows v. Jackson (1953), Flint v. Stone Tracy Co. (1911)
24 federal appellate · 17 district · 31 state decisions — followed in 18 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.
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 195 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“. .“The right of the states to administer their own affairs through their own legislative, executive, and judicial -departments, in their own way, and through their' own agencies-, is conceded by the uniform decisions of this court, and by the-practice of the federal government from its organization. This carries with‘it an exemption of those agencies and instruments from the taxing power of the. federal government. If they may be taxed lightly, they may be taxed heavily; if justly, oppressively. Their operation may be impeded, and may be destroyed, if any interference is permitted. Hence the beginning of such taxation is not allowed on the one side; is not claimed on the other.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]hat ... which compels one to pay for the support of the government from his own gains and of his own property.”
2 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.