Bridges v. Wixon’s Empirical Analysis
326 U.S. 135 · 1945
Citation profile
712 federal appellate · 126 district · 130 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,462 later decisions (105 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2025 · most notably United States v. Matlock (1974), California v. Green (1970)
712 federal appellate · 126 district · 130 state decisions — followed in 22 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
reviewedBridges v. Wixon (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Consolidated Edison Co of New York v. National Labor Relations Board · Thomas v. Collins · Schenck v. United States · Whitney v. People of State of California · Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. United States
Cited together with Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding · United States Accardi v. Shaughnessy · Shaughnessy v. United States Ex Rel. Mezei · Landon v. Plasencia · Galvan v. Press
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 1,462 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We are dealing here with procedural requirements prescribed for the protection of the alien. Though deportation is not technically a criminal proceeding, it visits a great hardship on the individual and deprives him of the right to stay and live and work in this land of freedom. That deportation is a penalty — at times a most serious one — cannot be doubted. Meticulous care must be exercised lest the procedure by which he is deprived of that liberty not meet the essential standards of fairness.”
27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[f]reedom of speech and of press is accorded aliens residing in this country.”
7 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.