Peter Junger v. William Daley’s Empirical Analysis
209 F.3d 481 · 2000
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently March 2024
2 federal appellate · 1 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.
Relationships
Relies on United States v. O'Brien · Roth v. United States · Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, Inc. · Quincy Cable TV, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The issue of whether or not the First Amendment protects encryption source code is a difficult one because source code has both an expressive feature and a functional feature. The United States does not dispute that it is possible to use encryption source code to represent and convey information and ideas about cryptography and that encryption source code can be used by programmers and scholars for such informational purposes. Much like a mathematical or scientific formula, one can describe the function and design of encryption software by a prose explanation; however, for individuals fluent in a computer programming language, source code is the most efficient and precise means by which to communicate ideas about cryptography. [¶] ... The fact that a medium of expression has a functional capacity should not preclude constitutional protection. [¶] ... [¶] ... [C]omputer source code, though unintelligible to many, is the preferred method of communication among computer programmers. [¶] Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment.”
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.