Terry’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

276 federal appellate · 38 district · 410 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 1,003 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Power of court “A court of the United States shall have power to punish by fine or imprisonment, at its discretion, such contempt of its authority, and none other, as— “(1) Misbehavior of any person in its presence or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice; “(2) Misbehavior of any of its officers in their official transactions; “(3) Disobedience or resistance to its lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command. June 25, 1948, c. 645, 62 Stat. 701 .” “§ 402. Contempts constituting crimes “Any person, corporation or association willfully disobeying any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command of any district court of the United States or any court of the District of Columbia, by doing any act or thing therein, or thereby forbidden, if the act or thing so done be of such character as to constitute also a criminal offense under any statute of the United States or under the laws of any State in which the act was committed, shall be prosecuted for such contempt as provided in section 3691 of this title and shall be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both. * * * * “This section shall not be construed to relate to contempts committed in the presence of the court, or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice, nor to contempts committed in disobedience of any lawful writ, process, order, rule, decree, or command entered in any suit or action brought or prosecuted in the name of, or on behalf of, the United States, but th”

   15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Savin · In re Debs

2. “We have seen that it is a settled doctrine in the jurisprudence both of England and of this country, never supposed to be in conflict with the liberty of the citizen, that for direct contempts committed in the face of the court, at least one of superior jurisdiction, the offender may, in its discretion, be instantly apprehended and immediately imprisoned, without trial or issue, and without other proof than its actual knowledge of what occurred; and that, according to an unbroken chain of authorities, reaching back to the earliest times, such power, although arbitrary in its nature and liable to abuse, is absolutely essential to the protection of the courts in the discharge of their functions. Without it, judicial tribunals would be at the mercy of the disorderly and violent, who respect neither the laws enacted for the vindication of public and private rights, nor the officers charged with the duty of administering them.”

   15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Fisher v. Pace · International Union, United Mine Workers v. Bagwell

3. “necessary to the exercise of all others.”

   15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Eilenbecker v. District Court of Plymouth County · In re Debs