Cargill, Inc., et al. v. Monfort of Colorado, Inc.

Decided December 9, 1986. William Joseph Brennan Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 85-473 · 479 U.S. 104 (1986) · Cited 721 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 6–2.

“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.

• Brunswick Corp. v. Pueblo Bowl-O-Mat, Inc. · 429 U.S. 477 (1977)
• Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation · 475 U.S. 574 (1986)
• Associated General Contractors of California, Inc. v. California State Council of Carpenters · 459 U.S. 519 (1983)
• Hawaii v. Standard Oil Co. of Cal. · 405 U.S. 251 (1972)
• Brown Shoe Co. v. United States · 370 U.S. 294 (1962)
• Blue Shield of Va. v. McCready · 457 U.S. 465 (1982)
• Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. · 395 U.S. 100 (1969)
• United States v. Von's Grocery Co. · 384 U.S. 270 (1966)
• Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois · 431 U.S. 720 (1977)
• Perma Life Mufflers, Inc. v. International Parts Corp. · 392 U.S. 134 (1968)
• Fortner Enterprises, Inc. v. United States Steel Corp. · 394 U.S. 495 (1969)
• United States v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. · 353 U.S. 586 (1957)

Cited by

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

• Atlantic Richfield Co. v. USA Petroleum Co. · 495 U.S. 328 (1990)
• Brooke Group Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. · 509 U.S. 209 (1993)
• Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. Linkline Communications, Inc. · 555 U.S. 438 (2009)
• California v. American Stores Co. · 495 U.S. 271 (1990)
• Spectrum Sports, Inc. v. McQuillan · 506 U.S. 447 (1993)
• Key Tronic Corp. v. United States · 511 U.S. 809 (1994)

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).