Morrison v. People of State of California’s Empirical Analysis
291 U.S. 82 · 1934
Citation profile
242 federal appellate · 18 district · 277 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 730 later decisions (56 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. (1940), Patterson v. New York (1977)
242 federal appellate · 18 district · 277 state decisions — followed in 35 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 Ng Fung Ho v. White · Hem v. United States · Terrace v. Thompson · Pettibone v. United States · Mobile Jackson Kansas City Railroad Company v. J a Turnipseed
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 730 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The decisions are manifold that within limits of reason and fairness the burden of proof may be lifted from the state in criminal prosecutions and cast on a defendant. The limits are in substance these, that the state shall have proved enough to make it just for the defendant to be required to repel what has been proved with excuse or explanation, or at least that upon a balancing of convenience or of the opportunities for knowledge the shifting of the burden will be found to be an aid to the accuser without subjecting the accused to hardship or oppression. Cf. Wigmore, Evidence, Vol. 5, §§ 2486, 2512 and cases cited.”
32 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In such circumstances the conviction of Morrison because he failed to assume the burden of disproving a conspiracy was a denial of due process that vitiates the judgment as to him.” Id. at 93 , 54 S.Ct. at 286 . (Emphasis ours.)”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“conspiracy imports a corrupt agreement between not less than two with guilty knowledge on the part of each”
4 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.