United States v. Cooper’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Rule 7(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure] contemplates an indictment that merely pleads each of the factual elements of the offense charged. It does not contemplate the inclusion of every piece of evidence that ultimately may be relevant to building a case against the defendant. If it did, a criminal indictment would be free to grow from a “plain and concise” statement of “essential” facts to an unreadable monstrosity discussing every piece of evidence that would be conceivably relevant at trial. Indeed, the Government would be free to use an indictment to thoroughly present its case to the jury before the trial even began, at a time when the defendant would not be entitled to defend himself. Although the cases defining surplusage sometimes inquire as to whether the material is “relevant to the charges,” ... this language should not be read as permitting any material that would be legally relevant at trial. Because so much material can qualify as legally relevant, such a reading would contravene the explicit language of Rule 7(c). Rather, as described by the Fourth Circuit in [United States v. Hartsell, 127 F.3d 343, 353 (4th Cir.1997) ], the question is whether that material is “unnecessary in making out a prima facie pleading of the violation.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 658 F. Supp. 2d 770 - United States v. Presgraves