Frisbie v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
157 U.S. 160 · 1895
Citation profile
127 federal appellate · 37 district · 139 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 445 later decisions (52 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Nebbia v. People of State of New York (1934), Near v. State of Minnesota Olson (1931)
127 federal appellate · 37 district · 139 state decisions — followed in 34 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 Coffin v. United States · United States Burnett v. Teller · United States v. Hall · United States v. Irvine
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 445 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is within the undoubted power of government to restrain some individuals from all contracts, as well as all individuals from some contracts. It may deny to all the right to contract for the purchase or sale of lottery tickets ; to the minor the right to assume any obligations, except for the necessaries of existence; to the common carrier the power to make any contract releasing himself from negligence; and, indeed, may restrain all engaged in any employment from any contract in the course of that employment which is against public policy. The possession of this power by government in no manner conflicts with the proposition that, generally speaking, every citizen has a right freely to contract for the price of his labor, services, or property.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““ * * * But in this country the common practice is for the grand jury to investigate any alleged crime, no matter how or by whom suggested to them, and after determining that the evidence is sufficient to justify putting the party suspected on trial, to direct the preparation of the formal charge or indictment. Thus they return into court only those accusations which they have approved, and the fact that they thus return them into court is evidence of such approval, and the formal indictment loses its essential character. * * * ” 16”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The chief objection raised to the indictment by the demurrer is that in some of the counts T. I>. Berry and Charles L. Mosby are charged jointly with the commission of certain offenses, and that in the same indictment Charles U. Mosby and T\ D. Berry are charged separately and in distinct counts with having committed distinct offenses, not provable by the same evidence, and that they do not result from the same act or acts. This argument is based on the assertion that each of the even-numbered counts in the indictment, which charges Mosby, the cashier of the bank, with making a false entry, and Berry, the president of the bank, with aiding and abetting Mosby in making such false entries, is not a single count, but two distinct counts. Because the first paragraphs of the count which charges Mosby, as the principal, has the conclusion, ‘contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States,’ it is insisted for the defendants that this is a distinct and complete count. It is also insisted that the succeeding paragraph, which charges Berry with aiding and abetting Mosby, is also a distinct and complete count, inasmuch as it concludes, ‘contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States.’ Each count is a separate and distinct charge, and is in effect a separate indictment. Clark, Cr. Proc. p. 2S8. That a principal and accessory can be inc”
4 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.