Robinson v. State of California’s Empirical Analysis
1962
Citation profile
1,006 federal appellate · 240 district · 1,563 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,839 later decisions (166 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Jackson v. Virginia (1979), Estelle v. Gamble (1976)
1,006 federal appellate · 240 district · 1,563 state decisions — followed in 48 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1257
Relies on Terminiello v. Chicago · Smith v. People of the State of California · Chambers v. Florida · Henning Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Cited together with Trop v. Dulles · Powell v. Texas · Weems v. United States · Estelle v. Gamble · Gregg v. Georgia
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 3,839 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Even one day in prison would be a cruel and unusual punishment for the 'crime' of having a common cold.”
74 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The Eighth Amendment expresses the revulsion of civilized man against barbarous acts--the 'cry of horror' against man's inhumanity to his fellow man.”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“criminal offense for a person to 'be addicted to the use of narcotics.'”
11 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.