William Ensign v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania No 123 Charles a Ensign’s Empirical Analysis
227 U.S. 592 · 1913
Citation profile
34 federal appellate · 4 district · 35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 121 later decisions (16 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 1999 · most notably Kungys v. United States (1988), McCarthy v. Arndstein (1924)
34 federal appellate · 4 district · 35 state decisions — followed in 15 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 Boyd v. United States · Albert Twining v. State of New Jersey · Albert Adams v. People of the State of New York · John Barron John Craig Luke Tiernan John Craig v. Mayor City Council of Baltimore · James Brown v. State of New Jersey
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 121 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““But no testimony given by him shall be offered -in evidence against him in any criminal proceeding.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It was reasonable for Congress to make a distinction between the schedule, which may presumably be prepared at leisure and scrutinized by the bankrupt with care before he verifies it, and the testimony that he is to give when he submits to an examination at a meeting of creditors or at other times pursuant to the order of the court — a proceeding more or less unfriendly and inquisitorial, as well as summary, and in which it may be presumed that even an honest bankrupt might, through confusion or want of caution, be betrayed into making admissions that he would not deliberately make.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Hoffman Can Corp““But as a matter of mere interpretation, we deem it clear that it is only the testimony given upon the examination of the bankrupt under clause 9 that is prohibited from being offered in evidence against him in a criminal proceeding.””
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.