United States v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
377 F.3d 232 · 2004
Citation profile
16 federal appellate · 1 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 61 later decisions — most recently June 2025 · most notably Omari v. Gonzales (2005), United States v. Burden (2010)
16 federal appellate · 1 district · 1 state decisions
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 18 U.S.C. § 1341 (White-Collar Crime Penalty Enhancement Act of 2002) · 18 U.S.C. § 1343 · 18 U.S.C. § 2314
Relies on Jackson v. Virginia · United States v. Olano · United States v. Young · Neder v. United States · Donnelly v. DeChristoforo
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 61 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The ‘unreasonable victim’ argument misapprehends the function of the ordinary prudence standard. To establish a violation of the federal fraud statutes, the government must prove a scheme to defraud. Critical to this showing is evidence that the defendant possessed a fraudulent intent. The role of the ordinary prudence and comprehension standard is to assure that the defendant’s conduct was calculated to deceive, not to grant permission to take advantage of the stupid or careless.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In Silverman , the defendant’s scheme to defraud, though misleading, did not involve any patently false representations. Rejecting defendant’s argument that he could not be convicted under the mail fraud statute absent a misrepresentation, the Fifth Circuit held that: [I]f a scheme is devised with the intent to defraud, and the mails are used in executing the scheme, the fact that there is no misrepresentation of a single existing fact makes no difference. It is only necessary to prove that it is a scheme reasonably calculated to deceive persons of ordinary prudence and comprehension.... Thus, in a ease with no evidence of any false representation, the Fifth Circuit used the ordinary prudence standard as a way to determine whether the defendant acted with fraudulent intent.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“transports, transmits, or transfers in interstate or foreign commerce any goods, wares, merchandise, securities or money, of the value of $5,000 or more, knowing the same to have been stolen, converted or taken by fraud; or [who], having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transports or causes to be transported, or induces any person or persons to travel in, or to be transported in interstate or foreign commerce in the execution or concealment of a scheme or artifice to defraud that person or those persons of money or property having a value of $5,000 or more.”
1 later decision 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.