Edwards v. Kearzey’s Empirical Analysis
96 U.S. 595 · 1877
Citation profile
43 federal appellate · 19 district · 279 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 489 later decisions (44 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025 · most notably Home Building & Loan Ass'n v. Blaisdell (1934), General Motors Corp. v. Romein (1992)
43 federal appellate · 19 district · 279 state decisions — followed in 41 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 Munn v. Illinois · Fletcher v. Peck · Sturges v. Crowninshield · Von Hoffman v. City of Quincy
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 489 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"[T]he remedy subsisting in a state when and where a contract is made and is to be performed is a part of its obligation, and any subsequent law of the State which so affects that remedy as substantially to impair and lessen the value of the contract is forbidden by the Constitution, and is therefore void." Kearzey, 96 U.S. at 607 .”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“"The obligation of a contract includes every thing within its obligatory scope. Among these elements nothing is more important than the means of enforcement. This is the breath of its vital existence. Without it, the contract, as such, in the view of the law, ceases to be, and falls into the class of those `imperfect obligations,' as they are termed, which depend for their fulfillment upon the will and conscience of those upon whom they rest. The ideas of right and remedy are inseparable. `Want of right and want of remedy are the same thing.'"”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““It is well settled by the decisions of this court that ‘the remedy subsisting in a state, when and where the contract is made and is to be performed, is a part of its obligation, and any subsequent law of the state which so affects that remedy as substantially to impair and lessen the value of the contract is forbidden by the Constitution, and is therefore void.’ Edwards v. Kearzey, 96 U. S. 597 , 607, 24 L. Ed. 793 .””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.