Butler v. Michigan’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
197 federal appellate · 21 district · 158 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 597 later decisions (71 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Miller v. California (1973), Shelton v. Tucker (1960)
197 federal appellate · 21 district · 158 state decisions — followed in 24 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.
Relationships
Relies on Winters v. People of State of New York · Railway Employes' Department v. Hanson
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 597 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“reduce the adult population . . . to reading only what is fit for children.”
32 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“manifestly tending to the corruption of the morals of youth”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Any judge may also, upon like complaint made on oath, issue a search warrant when satisfied that there is reasonable cause, in the following cases, to wit: “(1) To search for and seize any books, pamphlets, ballads, codes, printed papers or other things containing obscene * * * prints, pictures, figures or descriptions, manifestly tending to corrupt the morals of youth and intended to be sold, loaned, circulated, or distributed, or to be introduced into any family, school or place of education; * * * ” It should be noted that the statute-does not merely condone confiscation of obscene publications intended to be distributed directly to minors, or even to-be circulated in places where they are-likely to see them, but permits seizure of such material held for sale or circulation to anyone, young or old. If' the provision had been more carefully restricted to protect the young, a different question would be presented and-a contrary result might be indicated.”
2 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.