United States v. Robel’s Empirical Analysis
1967
Citation profile
435 federal appellate · 158 district · 163 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,216 later decisions (140 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2020 · most notably Perry v. Sindermann (1972), Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
435 federal appellate · 158 district · 163 state decisions — followed in 24 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
Relies on Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. State of Alabama Patterson · Cafeteria & Restaurant Workers Union, Local 473 v. McElroy · Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization
Cited together with Shelton v. Tucker · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · Keyishian v. Board of Regents of Univ. of State of NY · Aptheker v. Secretary of State · Dombrowski v. Pfister
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 1,216 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[p]recision of regulation must be the touchstone in an area so closely touching our most precious freedoms.”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“cannot be deemed an end in itself, justifying any exercise of legislative power designed to promote such a goal. Implicit in the term”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““[W]hen legitimate legislative concerns are expressed in a statute which imposes a substantial burden on protected First Amendment activities, Congress must achieve its goal by means which have a ‘less drastic’ impact on the continued vitality of First Amendment freedoms.””
10 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.