Bell v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1955
Citation profile
1,488 federal appellate · 105 district · 949 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,051 later decisions (93 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Brown v. Ohio (1977), United States v. Bass (1971)
1,488 federal appellate · 105 district · 949 state decisions — followed in 45 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
reviewedBell v. United States (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. Universal C. I. T. Credit Corp. · Hoke & Economides v. United States · Robinson v. United States · Lewyt Corp. v. Commissioner
Cited together with Blockburger v. United States · United States v. Universal C. I. T. Credit Corp. · Ladner v. United States · Prince v. United States · Gore 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 3,051 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“When Congress leaves to the Judiciary the task of imputing to Congress an undeclared will, the ambiguity should be resolved in favor of lenity.”
136 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'[w]hoever knowingly transports in interstate or foreign commerce . . . any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose. . . . Shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.'”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[w]hat Congress has made the allowable unit of prosecution”
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.