Shillitani v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
722 federal appellate · 173 district · 765 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,479 later decisions (39 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Lefkowitz v. Turley (1973), International Union, United Mine Workers v. Bagwell (1994)
722 federal appellate · 173 district · 765 state decisions — followed in 42 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. Shillitani (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. United Mine Workers of America · Gompers v. Bucks Stove & Range Co. · United States v. Bryan · Maggio v. Zeitz
Cited together with United States v. United Mine Workers of America · Bloom v. Illinois · McComb v. Jacksonville Paper Co. · Maggio v. Zeitz · Hicks Ex Rel. Feiock v. Feiock
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 2,479 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“inherent power to enforce compliance with [its] lawful orders through civil contempt.”
53 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent““* * * the act of disobedience consisted solely ‘in refusing to do what had been ordered,’ i. e., to answer the questions, not ‘in doing what had been prohibited.’ And the . judgments imposed conditional imprisonment for the obvious purpose of compelling the witnesses to obey the orders to testify. When the petitioners carry ‘the keys of their prison in their own pockets,' the action ‘is essentially a civil remedy designed for the benefit of other parties and has quite properly been exercised for centuries to secure compliance with judicial decrees.’ * * * ‘It is not the fact of punishment but rather its character and purpose that often serve to distinguish’ civil from criminal contempt.” (Citations omitted) Pp. 368-369, 86 S.Ct. at 1534 .”
30 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“what does the court primarily seek to accomplish by imposing sentence?”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.