Berger v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
295 U.S. 78 · 1935
Citation profile
4,310 federal appellate · 270 district · 2,576 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8,809 later decisions (137 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Chapman v. State of California (1967), Faretta v. California (1975)
4,310 federal appellate · 270 district · 2,576 state decisions — followed in 50 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
reviewedUnited States v. Berger (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Hagner v. United States · New York Cent Co v. Johnson · Washington Co v. Hickey · Bennett v. United States
Cited together with Kotteakos v. United States · Glasser v. United States · Brady v. State of Maryland · Stirone v. United States · Chapman v. State of California
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 8,809 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor — indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.”
603 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The general rule that allegations and proof must correspond is based upon the obvious requirements (1) that the accused shall be definitely informed as to the charges against him, so that he may be enabled to present his defense and not be taken by surprise by the evidence offered at the trial; and (2) that he may be protected against another prosecution for the same offense.”
83 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“overstep[ ] the bounds of that propriety and fairness which should characterize the conduct of such an officer in the prosecution of a criminal offense.”
20 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.