Direct Sales Co. v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
319 U.S. 703 · 1943
Citation profile
863 federal appellate · 26 district · 72 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,170 later decisions (18 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Iannelli v. United States (1975), Delli Paoli v. United States (1957)
863 federal appellate · 26 district · 72 state decisions — followed in 15 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
reviewedDirect Sales Co. v. United States (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 550
Relies on Glasser v. United States · Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. United States · United States v. Falcone · Eastern States Retail Lumber Dealers' Ass'n v. United States
Cited together with United States v. Falcone · Glasser v. United States · Kotteakos v. United States · Blumenthal v. United States · Jackson v. Virginia
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 1,170 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“more than suspicion, more than knowledge, acquiescence, carelessness, indifference, [or] lack of concern.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(C)harges of conspiracy are not to be made out by piling inference upon inference.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“cannot be drawn merely from knowledge the buyer will use the goods illegally.”
10 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.