United States v. Rylander’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
394 federal appellate · 89 district · 141 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,271 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Hicks Ex Rel. Feiock v. Feiock (1988), Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers' International Ass'n v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1986)
394 federal appellate · 89 district · 141 state decisions — followed in 26 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. Rylander (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 7602
Relies on Kastigar v. United States · Fisher v. United States · United States v. Powell · Edwin Hale v. William Henkel · Turner v. United States
Cited together with Maggio v. Zeitz · Shillitani v. United States · United States v. United Mine Workers of America · Hoffman v. United States · 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 1,271 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the shield * * * which it was intended to be into a sword”
33 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a contempt proceeding does not open to reconsideration the legal or factual basis of the order alleged to have been disobeyed and thus become a retrial of the original controversy.”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[w]here compliance is impossible, neither the moving party nor the court has any reason to proceed with the civil contempt action. It is settled, however, that in raising this defense, the defendant has a burden of production.”
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.