LexisNexis, that bastion of legal research and sworn enemy of Westlaw, has released a rather interesting list of the most cited cases. Of the ones laymen think might be on there, only Roe v. Wade really makes the list. There’s no Marbury v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Education, Dred Scott v. Sandford, or Bush v. Gore.
Going by what cases were drilled into my skull during my first year of law school, I’m a little disappointed there’s no Vosburg v. Putney, any of the 500 anti-railroad torts cases, Scott v. Shepherd (this case isn’t really all that important, but I love it because it liberally makes use of the word “squib”), Rylands v. Fletcher, Pennoyer v. Neff, International Shoe v. Washington (no, it has nothing to do with Khurshchev), Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court, Mas v. Perry, Erie (it doesn’t even need more of the actual case name), Chevron, Skidmore, the Benzene case, or any other handle of random procedural or administrative cases that we spent far too many class sessions discussing.
Amazingly, I do know some of the cases. We covered Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly in Civ Pro, I believe in reference to failure to state a claim. We also covered Celotex Corp. v. Catrett in Civ Pro, as a summary judgment issue. And finally, we did Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, again as a summary judgment issue in Civ Pro. Hm. I’m starting to see a trend here.
