United States v. Rodgers’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

88 federal appellate · 40 district · 24 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 224 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The term ‘special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States’, as used in this title, includes: (1) The high seas, any other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular State, and any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United States or any citizen thereof, or to any corporation created by or under the laws of the United States, or of any State, Territory, District, or possession thereof, when such vessel is within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular State. (2) Any vessel registered, licensed, or enrolled under the laws of the United States, and being- on a voyage upon the waters of any of the Great Lakes,”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hoopengarner v. United States · United States v. Jefferson D. Ross, United States of America v. Charles Elmer Wynn

2. ““Writers of high authority on this subject make a clear distinction between the main sea or the high sea, and roads, harbors, and ports, and we shall see that Congress had these distinctions in view in framing the act in question. Lord Hale, in the fourth chapter De Juris Maris, says: ‘That part of the sea which lies not within the body of a country is called the main sea or ocean.’ In the second chapter of the second part he «describes a road to he ‘an open passage of the sea, which, though it lies out at sea, yet in respect of the situation of the land adjacent, and the depth and wideness of the place, is a safe place for the common riding or anchoring of ships.’ ‘A haven is a place of a large receipt and safe riding of ships, so situate and secured by the lands circumjacent that the vessels thereby ride and anchor safely, and are protected by the adjacent land from dangerous and violent winds.’ ‘A port is a haven, and somewhat more,’ that is, for arriving and unloading ships, etc. * * * Mr. Webster, in his argument of Bevans’ Case, Fed. Cas. No. 14,589, says there is a distinction between the meaning of the terms ‘high sea’ and ‘sea’; that the high seas import the open, uninclosed ocean without the fauces terne, and he is not contradicted by the opposite counsel. Certainly ports and harbors which lie within the body of a country are not part of the high seas according to Uord Hale’s definitions. This learned lawyer further says, and we think with good reason, that ‘the com”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. The Cuzco

3. ““The statute under consideration (section 5346) provides that every person who, upon the high seas or in any river connecting with them, as we construe its language, within the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States, and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, commits on board of any vessel-belonging in whole or in part to the United States, or any citizen thereof, an assault on another with a dangerous weapon or with intent to perpetrate a felony, shall be punished, etc. The Detroit river from shore to shore is within the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States and connects with the open-waters of the lakes — high seas, as we hold them to be, within the meaning of the statute. From the boundary line, near its center to the Canadian shore-it is out of the jurisdiction of the state of Michigan. The case presented is therefore directly within its provisions.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Ex parte O'Hare