In re Nevitt’s Empirical Analysis
117 F. 448 · 1902
Citation profile
60 federal appellate · 12 district · 97 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 234 later decisions (19 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025 · most notably United States v. United Mine Workers of America (1947), Gompers v. Bucks Stove & Range Co. (1911)
60 federal appellate · 12 district · 97 state decisions — followed in 33 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on In re Debs · 'The Ku-Klux Cases' Yarbrough · Terry · In re Ayers · Ex parte Robinson
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 234 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Proceedings for contempt are of two classes—those prosecuted to preserve the power and vindicate the dignity of the court and to punish for disobedience of their orders; and those instituted to preserve and enforce the rights of private parties to suits, and to compel obedience to orders and decrees made to enforce the rights and administer the remedies to which the court has found them to be entitled. The former are criminal and punitive in their nature, and the government, the courts, and the people are interested in their prosecution. The latter are civil, remedial and coercive in their nature, and the parties chiefly in interest in their conduct and prosecution are the individuals whose private rights and remedies they are instituted to protect or enforce.””
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“carry 'the keys of their prison in their own pockets'”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The moment the courts of the United States were called into existence and invested with jurisdiction over any subject, they became possessed of this power [to punish for contempts] . . . But the power has been limited and defined by the act of Congress of March 2, 1831.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.