Sinclair v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
279 U.S. 749 · 1929
Citation profile
122 federal appellate · 8 district · 98 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 282 later decisions (24 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2017 · most notably Kotteakos v. United States (1946), Turner v. Louisiana (1965)
122 federal appellate · 8 district · 98 state decisions — followed in 19 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 District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Cooke v. United States · Terry · Savin · United States v. Shipp · Toledo Newspaper Co. 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 282 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(t)he reasonable tendency of the acts done is the proper criterion.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“But the situation is controlled by the reasonable tendencies of the acts done, and not by the extreme and substantially impossible assumptions on the subject. Again, it is said that there is no proof that the mind of the judge was influenced or his purpose to do his duty obstructed or restrained by the publications and therefore there was no proof tending to show the wrong complained of. But here again not the influence upon the mind of the particular judge is the criterion but the reasonable tendency of the acts done to influence or bring about the baleful result is the test. In other words, having regard to the powers conferred, to the protection of society, to the honest and fair administration of justice and to the evil to come from its obstruction, the wrong depends upon the tendency of the acts to accomplish this result without reference to the consideration of how far they may have been without influence in a particular case. The wrongdoer may not be heard to try the power of the judge to resist acts of obstruction and wrongdoing by him committed as a prelude to trial and punishment for his wrongful acts.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In some unimportant particulars, the evidence objected to was not admissible. But where the court decides the fact and the law without the intervention of a jury, the admission of illegal testimony, even if material, is not of itself a ground for reversing the judgment, nor is it properly the subject of a bill of exceptions. If evidence appears to have been improperly admitted, the appellate court will reject it, and proceed to decide the ease as if it was not in the record.””
2 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.