Medley’s Empirical Analysis
134 U.S. 160 · 1890
Citation profile
194 federal appellate · 41 district · 151 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 636 later decisions (71 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2024 · most notably Fay v. Noia (1963), Furman v. Georgia (1972)
194 federal appellate · 41 district · 151 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 Calder et Wife, v. Bull et Wife. · Fletcher v. Peck · Kring v. State of Missouri · Wilson
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 636 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'any law which was passed after the commission of the offense for which the party is being tried ... which alters the situation of the accused to his disadvantage[ ] ...' is invalid as ex post facto.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[a] considerable number of prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“one of the most horrible feelings to which he can be subjected.”
8 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.