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persons

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 436 U.S. 658 - Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · 1978Most cited · 40,842 citing opinions

municipal corporations.

How the Supreme Court has restated “persons”

19131920194019601978 most cited: 436 U.S. 658 - Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York (1978)
first stateddeparted

Each Supreme Court definition of “persons,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.

How often courts cite the cases defining “persons”

1910192019401960198020002020203012k

Court decisions citing the 5 opinions that defined “persons” — 43,536 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.

All 5 definitions, chronological · 1913–1978

  1. 1913·229 U.S. 447 - Charlton v. Kelly[p39]· cited 609×
    ORIGINAL

    all" persons when not qualified as it is in some of the treaties between this and other nations.

  2. 1936·299 U.S. 5 - Valentine v. United States ex rel. Neidecker[p14]· cited 353×

    citizens of the asylum state as well as all others.

  3. 1968·391 U.S. 68 - Levy v. Louisiana Ex Rel. Charity Hospital[p4]· cited 1,287×

    illegitimate children are not 'nonpersons.' They are humans, live, and have their being. They are clearly 'persons' within the meaning of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

    Equal Protection Clause

  4. 1975·423 U.S. 122 - United States v. Moore[p20]· cited 687×

    nonregistrants" when introducing the other subsections.