Kosak v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
268 federal appellate · 60 district · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 644 later decisions (23 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Hudson v. Palmer (1984), United States v. Boyle (1985)
268 federal appellate · 60 district · 17 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedKosak v. United States (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Feres v. United States · Dalehite v. United States · United States v. Lovasco · Richards v. United States · California State Board of Equalization v. Western Marina Corp.
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 644 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a]ny claim arising in respect of ... the detention of any goods or merchandise by any officer of customs or excise or any other law enforcement officer.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“exclusive jurisdiction of civil actions on claims against the United States, for money damages ... for injury or loss of property ... caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government while acting with in the scope of his office or employment, under circumstances where the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant in accordance with the law of the place where the act or omission occurred.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“any claim arising in respect of ... any detention of any goods or merchandise”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.