United States v. Furlong’s Empirical Analysis
18 U.S. 184 · 1820
Citation profile
23 federal appellate · 6 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 81 later decisions (17 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2019 · most notably McNabb v. United States (1943), Bartkus v. People of State of Illinois (1959)
23 federal appellate · 6 district · 8 state decisions
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.
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 81 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]hese are things so essentially different in their nature, that not even the omnipotence of legislative power can confound or identify them.... If by calling murder piracy, it might assert jurisdiction over that offence committed by a foreigner in a foreign vessel, what offence might not be brought within their power by the same device?”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“there can be no doubt that the plea of autre fois acquit would be good in any civilized State, though resting on a prosecution instituted in the Courts of any other civilized State.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[r]obbery on the seas is considered as an offence within the criminal jurisdiction of all nations”
2 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.