In re Mills’s Empirical Analysis
135 U.S. 263 · 1890
Citation profile
109 federal appellate · 33 district · 47 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 268 later decisions (27 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2020 · most notably Weems v. United States (1910), In re Bonner (1894)
109 federal appellate · 33 district · 47 state decisions — followed in 21 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 Reynolds v. States · Ex parte Lange · Royall · Ex parte Virginia · Ex Parte Nielsen
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 268 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““In every ease where any person convicted of any offense against the United States is sentenced to imprisonment for a period longer than one year, the court by which the sentence is passed may order the same to be executed in any state jail or penitentiary within the district or state where such court is held, the use of which jail or penitentiary is allowed by the Legislature of the state for that purpose.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“not [as] a case of mere error, but [as] one in which the court below transcended its powers”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. In re Bonner · Ex parte Kozlowski“We have not been able to arrive at this conclusion. In cases where the statute makes hard labor a part of the punishment, it is imperative upon the court to include that in its sentence. But where the statute requires imprisonment alone, the several provisions which have been just referred to place it within the power of the court, at its discretion to order execution of the sentence at a place where labor is exacted as a part of the discipline and treatment of the institution or not, as it pleases. Thus a wider range of punishment is given, and the courts are left at liberty to graduate their sentences so as to meet the ever-varying circumstances of the cases which cbme before them. If the offence is flagrant, the penitentiary, with its -discipline, may be called into requisition ; but if slight, a corresponding punishment may be inflicted- within the general range of the law.”
1 later decision 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.