Shall
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 422 U.S. 332 - Hicks v. Miranda · 1975Most cited · 2,529 citing opinions
must,' cf.
Merced Rosa v. Herrero, 423 F.2d 591 , 593 n.
2 (CA1, 1970), yet the judge who called for the three-judge court here was not named to the panel.
How the Supreme Court has restated “Shall”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Shall,” 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 “Shall”
Court decisions citing the 8 opinions that defined “Shall” — 3,076 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 8 definitions, chronological · 1909–2025
- ORIGINAL
the happening of the event,—the giving of the illegal rebate,—and was not introduced into the statute for the purpose of making future transportation illegal.
in the license the conditions the Secretary deems necessary.
provisions sufficient to satisfy the Good Neighbor Provision.
must" by terming the individual mandate a "[r]equirement to maintain minimum essential coverage." §5000A(a); see also NFIB, 567 U. S., at 663 (joint dissent) (providing other statutory references to the individual mandate as a requirement).
may,' " post, at 10.
shall," "stay" means "stay." Respondents insist that "stay" in §3 "means only that the court must stop parallel in-court litigation, which a court may achieve by dismissing without retaining jurisdiction." Brief for Respondents 15.
must." Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States, 579 U. S. 162 , 171–172 (2016).