Cheek v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
1,373 federal appellate · 123 district · 214 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,563 later decisions (30 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Ratzlaf et Ux United States (1994), Staples v. United States (1994)
1,373 federal appellate · 123 district · 214 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedUnited States v. Cheek (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Morissette v. United States · Hamling v. United States · Sandstrom v. Montana · William Marbury v. James Madison · Crowell v. Benson
Cited together with Ratzlaf et Ux United States · United States v. Pomponio · Spies v. United States · Bryan v. United States · United States v. Bishop
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 2,563 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“defendant knew of the duty purportedly imposed by the provision of the statute or regulation he is accused of violating”
78 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“voluntary, intentional violation of a known legal duty.”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage“[t]he proliferation of statutes and regulations has sometimes made it difficult for the average citizen to know and comprehend the extent of the duties and obligations imposed by the tax laws.”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.