Deal v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
542 federal appellate · 45 district · 142 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,251 later decisions (33 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2026 · most notably Smith v. United States (1993), Things Remembered, Inc. v. Petrarca (1995)
542 federal appellate · 45 district · 142 state decisions — followed in 24 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. Deal (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Morissette v. United States · William Marbury v. James Madison · American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance v. United States · Perrin v. United States · United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co.
Cited together with Apprendi v. New Jersey · Almendarez-Torres v. United States · United States v. Olano · United States v. Booker · Strickland v. Washington
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 1,251 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“fundamental principle of statutory construction (and, indeed, of language itself) that the meaning of a word cannot be determined in isolation, but must be drawn from the context in which it is used.”
35 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(A) [A]ny person who, during and in relation to any crime of violence ... uses or carries a firearm, or who, in furtherance of any such crime, possesses a firearm, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime ... (iii) if the firearm is discharged, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 10 years. (C) In the case of a second or subsequent conviction under this subsection, the person shall— (i) be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than 25 years ...”
17 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“second or subsequent conviction under this subsection”
12 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.