United States v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
531 F.2d 419 · 1976
Citation profile
25 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently April 1996 · most notably United States v. Bell (1978), United States v. Herbert (1983)
25 federal appellate · 1 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.
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 5811 (§ 201 of the Gun Control Act of 1968) · 26 U.S.C. § 5841 (§ 201 of the Gun Control Act of 1968) · 26 U.S.C. § 5845 (§ 201 of the Gun Control Act of 1968) · 26 U.S.C. § 5851 (§ 201 of the Gun Control Act of 1968) · 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (§ 201 of the Gun Control Act of 1968)
Relies on United States v. Freed · Babich v. United States · United States v. Balint · United States v. International Minerals & Chemical Corp. · Sipes v. United States
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]he key element of knowledge that the government must prove is that the defendant knew that he possessed 'a dangerous device of such type as would alert one to the likelihood of regulation.'”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Pencils, dental floss, paper clips may also be regulated. But they may be the type of products which might raise substantial due process questions if Congress did not require ... “mens rea” as to each ingredient of the offense.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Millions of Americans possess different varieties of hand guns and rifles without any consciousness of wrongdoing, or any suspicion that these weapons are as potentially dangerous as narcotics.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.