United States v. Mergerson’s Empirical Analysis
4 F.3d 337 · 1993
Citation profile
153 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 248 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2024 · most notably United States v. Grier (2007), United States v. Bermea (1994)
153 federal appellate · 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. § 2 · 18 U.S.C. § 922 (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 846 (§ 406 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 851 (§ 411 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Jackson v. Virginia · Glasser v. United States · Burks v. United States · Harmelin v. Michigan · Woodson v. North Carolina
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 248 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a] conviction based upon constructive possession will be upheld 'only when there is some evidence supporting at least a plausible inference that the defendant had knowledge of and access to the weapon.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“reasonable trier of fact could have found that the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[c]onstructive possession has been defined as ownership, dominion, or control over the contraband itself or dominion or control over the premises in which the contraband is concealed,”
2 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.