Dennis v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
341 U.S. 494 · 1951
Citation profile
1,260 federal appellate · 151 district · 581 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,696 later decisions (192 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
1,260 federal appellate · 151 district · 581 state decisions — followed in 41 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
reviewedUnited States v. Dennis (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 10 · 18 U.S.C. § 2384 · 18 U.S.C. § 2385 · 18 U.S.C. § 2386 · 29 U.S.C. § 158 (§ 8 of the National Labor Relations Act)
Relies on Pinkerton v. United States · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Meyer v. State of Nebraska · United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. · Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization
Cited together with United States v. Dennis · American Communications Ass'n v. Douds · Glasser v. United States · Yates v. United States · Morissette v. United States
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 2,696 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The existence of a mens rea is the rule of, rather than the exception to, the principles of Anglo-American criminal jurisprudence.”
69 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Courts are not representative bodies. They are not designed to be a good reflex of a democratic society. Their judgment is best informed, and therefore most dependable, within narrow limits. Their essential quality is detachment, founded on independence. History teaches that the independence of the judiciary is jeopardized when courts become embroiled in the passions of the day and assume primary responsibility in choosing between competing political, economic and social pressures.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Dawson v. State · State v. Black““Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.