employment
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 331 U.S. 704 - United States v. Silk · 1947Most cited · 1,477 citing opinions
any service, of whatever nature, performed * * * by an employee for his employer, except * * * agricultural labor et cetera.' §§ 811(b), 907(c); I.R.C.
How the Supreme Court has restated “employment”
Each Supreme Court definition of “employment,” 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 “employment”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “employment” — 2,980 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 4 definitions, chronological · 1928–1947
- ORIGINAL
the employment may begin in point of time before the work is entered upon and in point of space before the place where the work is to be done is reached
commencement
any service, of whatever nature, performed within the United States by an employee for his employer" except, inter alia, service performed "in the employ of the United States Government or of an instrumentality of the United States." Petitioner is an Arkansas corporation, organized for profit and with its only place of business situated on the United States Government Reservation known as Hot Springs National Park.
any service performed after December 31,1936,' and prior to January 1,1940, which was employment *361 as defined in section 210 (b) of the Social Security Act prior to January 1, 1940 (except service performed by an individual after he attained the age of sixty-five if performed prior to January 1, 1939), and any service, of whatever nature, performed after December'31, 1939, by an employee for the person employing him .