United States v. Sullivan’s Empirical Analysis
332 U.S. 689 · 1948
Citation profile
272 federal appellate · 54 district · 52 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 580 later decisions (75 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2024 · most notably Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987), Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission (1969)
272 federal appellate · 54 district · 52 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
reviewedSullivan v. United States (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 21 U.S.C. § 331 (Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act)
Relies on National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. · Wickard v. Filburn · Ala Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States · United States v. Darby · United States v. Dotterweich
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 580 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The purpose of the Act is to safeguard the consumer by applying its requirements to articles from the moment of their introduction into interstate commerce all the way to the moment of their delivery to the ultimate consumer, and the Act embraces misbranding while held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce.” (Footnote omitted.)”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(k) The alteration, mutilation, destruction, obliteration, or removal of the whole or any part of the labeling of, or the doing of any other act with respect to, a food, drug, device, or cosmetic, if such act is done while such article is held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce and results in such article being misbranded.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“protect consumers from dangerous products.”
3 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.