Ex parte McLeod’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 4 district · 1 state decisions

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 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Bribing a person,'who is known to be a material witness in a pending cause, to hide himself and remain away from the court, thereby preventing his testifying in such cause, is a. contempt of court, whether such person has been subpoenaed or not, and though punishable by indictment, under Kev. St. § 5399 [U. S. Comp. St. 3901, p. 36561, is also punishable under Rev. St. § 725, as a contempt committed by misbehavior ‘so near’ to the court ‘as to obstruct the administration of justice,’ though the act is done at the residence of the witness, at some distance from the courthouse, in the town where the court sits.””

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Huff · United States v. Toledo Newspaper Co.

2. ““The acts of the plaintiffs in error, whicli are established by the proofs herein, occurred several blocks distant from the place where the court was held, and not upon property belonging to the United States, or occupied or used by the court. The question is: ‘Were they committed so near to the presence of the court as to tend to obstruct the administration of justice therein?’ Section 725 of the Itevised Statutes was adopted by the act of Marcli 2, 1831 (U. S. Comp. St. 1001, p. 583), immediately following tlie conclusion of proceedings against District Judge Peck, who was impeached for imprisoning an attorney for criticism of.one of his decisions after the ease had ended in his court. It was the purpose of the act to limit the power of federal courts to punish as for contempt criticisms of judicial decisions or judicial officers, and it seems clear that the limitation expressed in the words, ‘so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice,’ was meant to apply more particularly to that class of contempts and to acts of turbulence and disorder committed, not in the presence of the court, nor so near thereto ag to present an obstacle to the orderly administration of justice, and not to misbehavior which, at whatever place committed, would tend as completely to obstruct the administration of justice as if committed in the immediate presence or in the vicinage of the court. It is obvious that any willful attempt improperly to influence jurors in the impartial disc”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Huff

3. ““Now, from the reasoning of these cases, it is made perfectly clear that the misbehavior of which Brule is guilty, if it had occurred anywhere "within the building where the court is held, would have been ‘clearly a contempt, punishable as provided in section 720 of the Revised Statutes, by fine or imprisonment, at the discretion of the court, and without indictment. Why? Because, under such circumstances, it would have been misbehavior, of a person in the presence of the court. But the statute says that the misbehavior of a person so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice’ may be likewise punished as a contempt of court. If it is a contempt to bribe a witness in front of the courthouse door, is it not a contempt to attempt to do the same thing on the street opposite the court building, or four blocks away? Is not the result the same? Is not the motive of the accused the same? What difference does it make whether the attempt was made on the ground owned by the United States, or at the residence of the witness in the same town, four blocks, or about one-quarter of a mile away, from the court building? In one case the misbehavior would be construed to. be in the presence of the court, and in the other ‘so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice,’ and the statute, in clear language, is made to apply to both cases.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Carroll