Pointer v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
151 U.S. 396 · 1894
Citation profile
542 federal appellate · 44 district · 473 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,267 later decisions (56 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Batson v. Kentucky (1986), Swain v. State of Alabama (1965)
542 federal appellate · 44 district · 473 state decisions — followed in 44 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 Logan v. United States · Lewis v. United States · Hayes v. State of Missouri · Little v. Hackett
Cited together with Swain v. State of Alabama · Lewis v. United States · Batson v. Kentucky · Stilson v. United States · Glasser v. United States
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 1,267 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“one of the most important of the rights secured to the accused,”
39 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““When there are several charges against any person for the same act or transaction, or for two or more acts or transactions connected together, or for two or'more acts or transactions of the same class of crimes or offenses, which may be properly joined, instead of having several indictments, the whole may be joined in one indictment in separate counts; and if two or more indictments are found in such cases, the court may order them to be consolidated.””
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““While recognizing as fundamental the principle that the court must not permit the defendant to be embarrassed in his defense by a multiplicity of charges embraced in one indictment * * *, and while conceding that regularly or usually an indictment should not include more' than one felony, the authorities concur in holding that a joinder in one indictment, * * * of different felonies, at least of the same class or grade, and subject to the same punishment * * * does not, in. every case, by reason alone of such joinder, make it the duty of the court, upon motion of the accused, to compel the prosecutor to elect upon what one of the charges he will, go to trial. * * * If it be discovered at any time during a trial that the substantial rights of the accused may be prejudiced by a submission to the same jury of more' than one distinct charge of felony among two or more of the same class, the court * * * can compel an election by the prosecutor. * * ””
6 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.