American Tobacco Co. et al. v. Patterson et al.

Decided April 5, 1982. Byron Raymond White delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 80-1199 · 456 U.S. 63 (1982) · Cited 841 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States · 431 U.S. 324 (1977)
• Griggs v. Duke Power Co. · 401 U.S. 424 (1971)
• Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co. · 424 U.S. 747 (1976)
• Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison · 432 U.S. 63 (1977)
• Consumer Product Safety Commission v. GTE Sylvania, Inc. · 447 U.S. 102 (1980)
• United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans · 431 U.S. 553 (1977)
• United Steelworkers of America v. Weber · 443 U.S. 193 (1979)
• California Brewers Assn. v. Bryant · 444 U.S. 598 (1980)
• Griswold v. Connecticut · 381 U.S. 479 (1965)
• Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co. · 415 U.S. 36 (1974)
• Delaware State College v. Ricks · 449 U.S. 250 (1980)
• Richards v. United States · 369 U.S. 1 (1962)
• Reiter v. Sonotone Corp. · 442 U.S. 330 (1979)
• Humphrey v. Moore · 375 U.S. 335 (1964)
• Piper v. Chris-Craft Industries, Inc. · 430 U.S. 1 (1977)
• Chardon v. Fernandez · 454 U.S. 6 (1981)
• New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer · 440 U.S. 568 (1979)
• Emporium Capwell Co. v. Western Addition Community Organization · 420 U.S. 50 (1975)
• Piedmont & Northern Railway Co. v. Interstate Commerce Commission · 286 U.S. 299 (1932)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Lorance v. At&t Technologies, Inc. · 490 U.S. 900 (1989)
• Jam v. International Finance Corp. · 586 U.S. 199 (2019)
• United States v. Locke · 471 U.S. 84 (1985)
• Ford Motor Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · 458 U.S. 219 (1982)
• Firefighters Local Union No. 1784 v. Stotts · 467 U.S. 561 (1984)
• United States v. James · 478 U.S. 597 (1986)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca · 480 U.S. 421 (1987)
• Wilder v. Virginia Hospital Assn. · 496 U.S. 498 (1990)
• Park 'N Fly, Inc. v. Dollar Park & Fly, Inc. · 469 U.S. 189 (1985)
• Marek v. Chesny · 473 U.S. 1 (1985)
• Local Number 93, International Ass'n of Firefighters v. City of Cleveland · 478 U.S. 501 (1986)
• Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education · 476 U.S. 267 (1986)
• Connecticut v. Teal · 457 U.S. 440 (1982)
• Ardestani v. Immigration & Naturalization Service · 502 U.S. 129 (1991)
• Dennis v. Higgins · 498 U.S. 439 (1991)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Phinpathya · 464 U.S. 183 (1984)
• Kosak v. United States · 465 U.S. 848 (1984)
• Communications Workers of America v. Beck · 487 U.S. 735 (1988)
• Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority v. Citizens for the Abatement of Aircraft Noise, Inc. · 501 U.S. 252 (1991)
• Securities Industry Ass'n v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System · 468 U.S. 137 (1984)
• Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder · 469 U.S. 153 (1985)
• Fischer v. United States · 603 U.S. 480 (2024)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).