United States v. Thirty-Seven (37) Photographs’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
469 federal appellate · 102 district · 251 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,453 later decisions (113 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Broadrick v. Oklahoma (1973), Hamling v. United States (1974)
469 federal appellate · 102 district · 251 state decisions — followed in 31 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
Applies 19 U.S.C. § 1305 (Tariff Act of 1930) · 19 U.S.C. § 1602 (Tariff Act of 1930) · 19 U.S.C. § 1652 (Tariff Act of 1930)
Relies on Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · Roth v. United States · Dombrowski v. Pfister · Thornhill v. Alabama
Cited together with Freedman v. Maryland · Miller v. California · Roth v. United States · United States v. 12 200-Ft. Reels of Super 8MM. Film · Stanley v. Georgia
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 1,453 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a construction of the statute is fairly possible by which the question may be avoided.”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage“Customs officers characteristically inspect luggage and their power to do so is not questioned in this case; it is an old practice and is intimately associated with excluding illegal articles from the country.”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“lack[s] jurisdiction authoritatively to construe state legislation.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.