United States v. Abel’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
578 federal appellate · 117 district · 471 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,735 later decisions (25 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (1993), General Electric Co. v. Joiner (1997)
578 federal appellate · 117 district · 471 state decisions — followed in 40 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. Abel (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Davis v. Alaska · Alford v. United States · Palmer v. Hoffman · Brandenburg v. Ohio · Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, Inc.
Cited together with Davis v. Alaska · Delaware v. Van Arsdall · Brady v. State of Maryland · Jackson v. Virginia · Chapman v. State of California
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 1,735 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Proof of bias is almost always relevant because the jury, as finder of fact and weigher of credibility, has historically been entitled to assess all evidence which might bear on the accuracy and truth of a witness' testimony.”
52 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[a] district court is accorded a wide discretion in determining the admissibility of evidence under the Federal Rules” and”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, ... or by considerations of ... needless presentation of cumulative evidence.”
13 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.