Chapman v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
1,455 federal appellate · 106 district · 315 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,638 later decisions (30 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably United States v. Mead Corp. (2001), Harmelin v. Michigan (1991)
1,455 federal appellate · 106 district · 315 state decisions — followed in 41 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Bell v. Wolfish · Lockett v. Ohio · Pierce v. Underwood · United States v. Turkette · Meachum v. Fano
Cited together with Harmelin v. Michigan · United States v. Bass · Mistretta v. United States · Neal v. United States · Kolender v. Lawson
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 2,638 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“mixture or substance containing a detectable amount”
38 later decisions quote this exact passage“a portion of matter consisting of two or more components that do not bear a fixed proportion to one another and that however thoroughly commingled are regarded as retaining a separate existence.”
29 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“so long as the penalty is not based on an arbitrary distinction that would violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.”
27 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.