Smith v. Goguen’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
613 federal appellate · 267 district · 1,173 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,981 later decisions (71 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc. (1982)
613 federal appellate · 267 district · 1,173 state decisions — followed in 46 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
reviewedGoguen v. Smith (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Grayned v. City of Rockford · United States v. O'Brien · Connally v. General Construction Co. · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Picard v. Connor
Cited together with Kolender v. Lawson · Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc. · Connally v. General Construction Co. · Broadrick v. Oklahoma · Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville
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 2,981 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“is not actual notice, but the other principal element of the doctrine—the requirement that a legislature establish minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement.”
39 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a standardless sweep [that] allows policemen, prosecutors, and juries to pursue their personal predilections.”
38 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A] statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application, violates the first essential of due process of law.”
28 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.