United States v. Gooding’s Empirical Analysis
25 U.S. 460 · 1827
Citation profile
149 federal appellate · 20 district · 66 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 309 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Morissette v. United States (1952), Bourjaily v. United States (1987)
149 federal appellate · 20 district · 66 state decisions — followed in 30 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 The Emily and the Caroline · The Plattsburgh
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 309 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“. . . [H]e who commands, or procures a crime to be done, is guilty of the crime, and the act is his act. This is so true, that even the agent may be innocent, when the procurer or principal may be convicted of guilt, as in the case of infants or idiots, employed to administer poison . . .”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“My own error, however, can furnish no ground for its being adopted by this Court * * *.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Tbe offense charged in this indictment is a misdemeanor, where all are principals; and the doctrine applicable to principal and accessory in cases of felony does not apply. The offense, however, charged against the defendant is secondary in its character; and there can be no doubt that it must sufficiently .appear upon the indictment that the offense alleged against the chief actor had in fact been committed.””
3 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.