Burr’s Empirical Analysis
22 U.S. 529 · 1824
Citation profile
69 federal appellate · 35 district · 69 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 334 later decisions (10 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2019 · most notably Chambers v. Nasco, Inc. (1991), In Re Robert J Snyder (1985)
69 federal appellate · 35 district · 69 state decisions — followed in 24 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 In re Gephard
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 334 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“On one hand, the profession of an attorney is of great importance to an individual, and the prosperity of his whole life may depend on its exercise. The right to exercise it ought not to be lightly or capriciously taken from him. On the other, it is extremely desirable that the respectability of the bar should be maintained, and that its harmony with the bench should be preserved. For these objects, some controlling power, some discretion, ought to reside in the court. This discretion ought to be exercised with great moderation and judgment; but it must be exercised; and no other tribunal can decide, in a case of removal from the bar, with the same means of information as the court itself.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Frazier v. Heebe · In re Abrams“incidental to all courts, and is necessary for the preservation of decorum, and for the respectability of the profession.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[I]t is said that, “a complaint against an attorney ought not to be received unless made on oath,” citing In re Burr .... This is a statement of the common law prior to the enactment of Chapter 4379, Acts of 1895.... There is no statutory authority which compels a State attorney to file his motion to disbar under oath.... While it was formerly the practice to require all pleadings of any kind whatever, both in equity and in law, to be under oath, the old technicalities of pleading are being done away with, and rightly so, including the elimination of the oath in most actions. In view of this tendency, and by reason of the absence of statutory requirements, we cannot agree ... that a complaint against an attorney ought not to be received unless made on oath. The absence of an oath of the State attorney to a motion to disbar made under the statute is not ground for reversal.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. In Re Sibley
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.