Costello v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1961
Citation profile
622 federal appellate · 214 district · 263 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,040 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2025 · most notably National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Morgan (2002), Segura v. United States (1984)
622 federal appellate · 214 district · 263 state decisions — followed in 38 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. Costello (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States · Nardone v. United States · United States v. Procter & Gamble Co. · Schneiderman v. United States
Cited together with Fedorenko v. United States · Schneiderman v. United States · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Occidental Life Insurance Company of California v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
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 2,040 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“dismissal on a ground not going to the merits was not ordinarily a bar to a subsequent action on the same claim.”
39 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) lack of diligence by the party against whom the defense is asserted, and (2) prejudice to the party asserting the defense.”
34 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“operates as an adjudication upon the merits”
22 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.