Hall v. DeCuir’s Empirical Analysis
95 U.S. 485 · 1877
Citation profile
32 federal appellate · 19 district · 108 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 383 later decisions (77 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2022 · most notably Caminetti v. United States (1917), Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886)
32 federal appellate · 19 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 Gibbons v. Ogden · Munn v. Illinois · Aaron Cooley v. The Board of Wardens of the Port of Philadelphia to the Use of the Society for the Relief of Distressed Pilots Their Widows and Children Same · Sturges v. Crowninshield · Welton v. The State of Missouri
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 383 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““There can be no doubt that the exclusive power has been conferred upon congress in respect to the regulation of commerce among the several states. * . * * The river Mississippi passes through or along the borders of ten different slates, and its tributaries reach many more. The commerce upon these waters is immense, and its regulation clearly a matter of national concern. If each state was at liberty to regulate the conduct of carriers while within its jurisdiction, the confusion likely to follow could not but bo productive of great inconvenience and unnecessary hardship. Each state could provide for its own passengers and regulate the transportation of its own freight, regardless of the interests of others. Nay more; it coul'd prescribe rules by which the carrier must be governed within the state in respect to passengers and property brought from without. On one side of ¡lie river or its tributaries he might he required to observe one set of rules, and on the other another. Commerce cannot flourish in the midst of such embarrassments. No carrier of passengers can conduct his business with satisfaction to himself, or comfort to those employing him, if on one side of a state line his passengers, both white and colored, must he permitted to occupy the same cabin, and on the other he kept separate. Uniformity in the regulations by which he is to he governed from one end to Uie other of his route is a necessity in his business, and to secure it congress, which is untrammeled by ”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Commerce cannot flourish in the midst of such embarrassments. No carrier of passengers can conduct his business with satisfaction to himself, or comfort to those employing him, if on one side of a State line his passengers, both white and colored, must be permitted to occupy the same cabin, and on the other be kept separate. Uniformity in the regulations by which he is to be governed from one end to the other of his route is a necessity in his business * * *. 95 U.S. at 489.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) The transportation of merchandise from place to place by railroad is commerce. (2) The transportation of merchandise from a place in one state to a place in another is “ commerce among the states.” (3) To fix or limit the charges for such transportation is to regulate commerce. (4) A statute iixing or limiting such charges for transportation from places in one state to places in other states, is a regulation of commerce among the states. (5) The power to regulate such commerce is vested by the constitution in congress. (6) This power of congress is exclusive, at least in all cases where the subjects over which the power is exercised are in their nature national, or admit of one uniform system or plan of regulation. (7) The state cannot adopt any regulation which does or may operate injuriously upon the commerce of other states.”
1 later decision 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.