United States v. Ballard’s Empirical Analysis
322 U.S. 78 · 1944
Citation profile
346 federal appellate · 102 district · 245 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,042 later decisions (80 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2025 · most notably New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), Dandridge v. Williams (1970)
346 federal appellate · 102 district · 245 state decisions — followed in 34 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 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Berger v. United States · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire · West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Cited together with Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Sherbert v. Verner · Wisconsin v. Yoder · United States v. Seeger · Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division
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 1,042 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * Freedom of thought, which includes freedom of religious belief, is basic in a society of free men. * * * It embraces the right to maintain theories of life and of death and of the hereafter which are rank heresy to followers of the orthodox faiths. Heresy trials are foreign to our Constitution. Men may believe what they cannot prove. They may not be put to the proof of their religious doctrines or beliefs. * * * Many take their gospel from the New Testament. But it would hardly be supposed that they could be tried before a jury charged with the duty of determining whether those teachings contained false representations. * * * The religious views espoused by respondents might seem incredible, if not preposterous, to most people. But if those doctrines are subject to trial before a jury charged with finding their truth or falsity, then the same can be done with the religious beliefs of any sect. When the triers of fact undertake that task, they enter a forbidden domain. * * *”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“that the District Court ruled properly when it withheld from the jury all questions concerning the truth or falsity of the religious beliefs or doctrines of respondents”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'when it is so altered as to charge a different offense from that found by the grand jury.'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.