Calder et Wife, v. Bull et Wife.’s Empirical Analysis
3 U.S. 386 · 1798
Citation profile
447 federal appellate · 103 district · 977 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,076 later decisions (120 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably In the Matter of Samuel Winship (1970), Landgraf v. USI Film Products (1994)
447 federal appellate · 103 district · 977 state decisions — followed in 49 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 Jones v. Le Tombe
Cited together with Weaver v. Graham · Collins v. Youngblood · Miller v. Florida · Dobbert v. Florida · Beazell v. State of Ohio Chatfield
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 2,076 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“1st. Every law that makes an action done before the passing of the law, and which was innocent when done, criminal; and punishes such action. 2d. Every law that aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed. 3d. Every law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed. 4th. Every law that alters the legal rules of evidence, and receives less, or different, testimony, than the law required at the time of the commission of the offence, in order to convict the offender.”
276 later decisions quote this exact passage“[n]o State shall . . . pass any . . . ex post facto Law.”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage“[t]he enhancement of a crime, or penalty, seems to come within the same mischief as the creation of a crime or penalty; and therefore they may be classed together.”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.