United States v. Lee’s Empirical Analysis
274 U.S. 559 · 1927
Citation profile
355 federal appellate · 59 district · 413 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 954 later decisions (47 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Katz v. United States (1967), Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971)
355 federal appellate · 59 district · 413 state decisions — followed in 45 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Carroll v. United States · Weeks v. United States · Agnello v. United States · Hester v. United States · Ford v. United States
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 954 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(N)o search on the high seas is shown. The testimony of the boatswain shows that he used a searchlight. It is not shown that there was any exploration below decks or under hatches. For aught that appears, the cases of liquor were on deck and, like the defendants, were discovered before the motor boat was boarded. Such use of a searchlight is comparable to the use of a marine glass or a field glass. It is not prohibited by the Constitution. Compare Hester v. United States, 265 U.S. 57 (44 S.Ct. 445, 68 L.Ed. 898).”
11 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.